Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	eternal_a	life_n	way_n	4,470	5	5.3302	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66351	The kingdom of God in power a sermon preached before the Right Honourable Sir John Shorter, Knight, Lord Mayor of the city of London, at Grocers-Hall, November the 20th, 1687 / by Daniel Williams ...	Williams, Daniel, 1643?-1716.	1688 (1688)	Wing W2652; ESTC R1845	22,380	40

full they drew to shore and gathered the good into Vessels bnt cast the bad away You see that Hypocrites and Sincere Believers are of the Kingdom but Hypocrites belong to it as they wear the visage of the Sincere and therefore the name of Subjects belongs to them only equivocally Whereas in the most proper sense it is confined to men heartily devoted to Christ. He is eminently King of Saints even of such who have unfeignedly subscribed his Covenant Psal. 50. 5. All such are esteemed by him for his People and they yea only they can say concerning God The Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King he will save us I can hardly forbear to bewail the dangerous condition of many men professing Christianity Crowds will be found Rebels in heart dead as to a Spiritual Life whilst they have a name to live and obeying their Lusts when they bow the Knee to Jesus Having finished this Account of the Kingdom of God I proceed to explain how it is not in Word but in Power And with the Explication I will insert the proof of the Doctrine That the Kingdom of God in the three forementioned Instances is not in Word but in Power Whatever mens Conceits be of this Kingdom it will be found to consist not in Weak Appearances but in effectual Realities It attaineth the ends of the Constitution it is expressive of a Divine and Supernatural Virtue and is not a dead Image and carnal Matter 1. The Gospel of Christ our Redeemer is effectual by the Spirit to recover fallen Men and to govern and improve them unto eternal Life This is not an empty Sound it consists not in low or weak Matters but is Life and Power Every command is enstamped with the Authority of the Lord of Heaven and Earth and is not the faint advice of poor Mortals Men disobey them at their utmost peril Hebr. 12. 25. Life and Death is annexed to them by a Soveraign who is able and resolved to execute his Royal Sanction They have a Virtue in them to dispose us to Obedience and are holy spiritual and perfect The Matters revealed by the Gospel are not vain Conceits but glorious Realities they are beyond the Light of Nature to conceive they shine in a Light fit to illuminate the darkned minds of Sinners and when they are apprehended they must inspire with the highest Resentments and make lasting Impressions on the Soul. The Promises are not doubtful Words but great and sure they contain all that 's good they are founded on the Veracity of God who cannot lye and on the Virtue of Christs Undertakings and Death which cannot be disappointed Yea they are mighty to dispence the Grace contained therein to needy Souls and are the effectual Instrument to invest men in all the blessings of the Covenant when the Condition is performed by them The Sacraments and all Institutions of Christ as to Worship or Discipline are powerful to improve our Graces mortifie our Lusts maintain our Converses with God and dispence Joy and Comfort through the Operation of God by them The Arguments urged by the Gospel are fit to move and have all in them necessary to an Instrument of moral Government The Presence of God is promised and the Efficacy of all these means argue the Spirit 's operation by them they are the Vehicle of the Holy Ghost and therefore when we are profitable to the Souls of Men our Gospel cometh to them not in Word only but in Power and in the Holy Ghost This Gospel is called The Arm of God revealed the Scepter of his Kingdom and Rod of his Strength This affords those Weapons which are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds and bringing every thought to the obedience of Christ. God hath appointed it to raise dead Souls and subdue rebellious Sinners to his Government In the Institutions of the Gospel God meets us and blesseth us he communicateth Light and Strength whereby the weak Christian is enabled to persevere What Trophies of its Power are in Heaven and Earth How many great Sinners hath it changed Every Age and Place where it cometh yield a Testimony of its Energy restraining some turning others from Idols to serve the Living God from a carnal Life to a spiritual This hath made the Ambitious and Covetous to Postpone all to the concerns of an invisible World and sacrifice their former Idols to the Profession of Truth How many weak Christians hath it strengthned to do and suffer unexpected things What Joy hath it infused into sadned Hearts On these accounts the Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth 2. The Graces and Actings which qualify the Subjects of Christ are so spiritual real and sublime as to argue a Divine life and the Dominion of God in the Soul. What this Kingdom requireth and effecteth are not bare Pretences weak Attempts sleight Attainments or external Performances these are too mean for God to injoin or accept He doth not paint a dead Carkass but raise it to Life he createth a new Heart wherein his Laws are prevalent Dispositions and communicateth a nature too Divine to derive its birth from a lower Original than Regeneration by the Spirit John 3. 3. Hence all real Christians are said to be born of God and partakers of the divine Nature Our crying Lord Lord and all external Alterations signify little in this new Man which after God is created in Wisdom and true Holiness I will hint at some particulars which have the chief place in this Kingdom and you 'l see that none of them is in Word but in Power Faith is not a faint assent to the Truths of the Gospel but such a realizing of invisible Objects reliance on Christ and consent to Him the Redeemer as purifieth the Heart worketh by Love and derives from Christ fit supports in the way of truth and holiness to eternal Life Gospel Repentance is not a bare sorrow for Sin but a true hatred and forsaking of Sin on Gospel-motives Our love to God is not in a few kind or sleighty thoughts of God but a prevalent esteem of God and delight in him as the supreme Good and this expressing it self in sincere Obedience to his strictest Laws and Zeal for his Interests when most despised If a man love me saith Christ he will keep my words If we love any thing as him it 's a hating of him by the Rules of this Kingdom The Worship which Christ insisteth on and disposeth all his Subjects for is in Spirit and in Truth it 's no sleight performance nor by humane Inventions Prayer must be a fervent pouring out of the Soul to God and not lip-labour Hearing the Word is of no esteem with him unless the heart be obedient to the word Jam. 1. 25. Baptism is not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience toward

by the Law of Works The great Doctrins of Regeneration Repentance Faith in Christ love of God and sincere Obedience as explained by the Gospel Standard are the things to be urged as conditions of Salvation should we mistake these Terms of Life or neglect to persuade your Compliance therewith other things would be vain and leave you dead in your sins What profit is it that you learn and do all things else if you submit not to the Terms of the Gospel For this is the lowest Rule of Gods judgment by which the salvation of any sinner is possible He will judge the secrets of all men by the Gospel The manner also of a Ministers preaching of these Truths is considerable We should publish these in the greatest Evidence and in a way most probable to be attended with the influence of the Spirit Much of that divine Power which persuades you is exerted in fitting the Preacher to plead with you Ministers of the Gospel are therefore to avoid the enticeing words of mans wisdom and must preach in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power We must represent things in the greatest plainness urge Gospel Arguments with the fullest Evidence and Importunity approving our selves to every mans Conscience to the utmost for their Conviction and Persuasion It 's not invaluable to you that the Minister in all his work is under the power of what he preacheth and doth all in a humble dependance on the blessing and power of the Holy Ghost This Ministry answers the Gospel description this hath a tendency and fitness to subdue Souls to Christ this is that the Lord Jesus who ordinarily works according to the aptitude of means doth usually bless Such a Ministry is a sign that God intends the enlargement of his Kingdom and according to what appears of it among us we may expect proportionable Effects The Lord bring the vain Minds of Hearers to approve this sort of Preaching and convince us Ministers of all levity and mistakes in our Ministration 2. What you have heard of the nature of Grace and Loyal Actings towards Christ may sharply reprove all such who seem by Principle to place Religion in any thing short of this Power It 's needful they lock up the Scriptures those Royal Statutes of Christ who dare place Christianity in external Rites tho the Heart and Life be unsanctified It s Disloyalty to Christ to exchange his Institutions for human Inventions Yea it 's Disloyalty to exclude internal Worship for external and define Graces and spiritual Acts by no more than a dead Image of them How must they debase Religion who commend Pomp for spiritual Devotion and make carnal Observances serve instead of Gospel Faith and Love Surely they little regard the Authority and Constitutions of Christ who account Attrition to be Repentance and represent Pilgrimages Confession Penance and blind Obedience to the Church c. too like an Atonement for the absence of the essential Terms of Life What can more expresly contradict Mens pleasing God by meer external Acts or Profession than my Text doth But alas the Doctrin of Opus operatum is too natural to a dead sinner to be confined within the Walls where first avowed All are too apt to throw off Duties as a Penance and think the eternal Spirit is satisfied with bodily Homage Many judge that Ordinances edify them as a meer Charm without any due exercise of Soul in them A mistake in this essential Point is the reason also why many jear at the Graces of God promise Life to a just and civil demeanour and scoff at Holiness as Preciseness The like Effects of a carnal Spirit is Mens esteeming Regeneration to be no more than external Baptism when that is but a visible Representation of the nature of it and a Seal and Instrument of investitute in Gospel Blessing on supposition that we are inwardly Regenerated What a gross conceit is it that Conversion is but a turning from a gross Infidels State by a bare external Profession of Christianity tho the mind be still unrenewed and the Heart unimpressed by a divine Principle From these Sentiments Men ridicule all Pretences to those things which the Scriptures expresly declare concerning every Believer as praying in the Spirit Communion with God Union to Christ Spiritual Joy c. tho the things are intelligible by any that are judicious and experienced by such as have any converse by Faith with God and spiritual Things It 's pity that a prophane Spirit should arraign the Matters peculiar to a Life so far above its self especially when God hath told us A natural man cannot know the things of God because they are spiritually discerned But whilst they must be foolishness to them Wisdom will be justified by its Children as better Advocates and fitter Judges Nevertheless the Devil attains a destructive End by these Notions for his Dominion is supported and poor sinners are secure in a State of Rebellion against Christ whiles they flatter themselves as Subjects to him because they do a few trifles which neither Satan nor their Lusts forbid and Custom Interest or natural Conscience persuade to How will any Soul among you who stands guilty of this Charge dare to look the Blessed Redeemer in the Face What terror will surprize you when you are accused by him as disloyal in your very Principles and asserters of that for Religion whereby Gods Sovereignty over the Heart is excluded and all real actings of Grace unprovided for You have reproached that which God lays the greatest Stress on which his Kingdom chiefly consists in and his Saints most value themselves by Before I proceed to the Exhortations I design it 's needfull to insert two Cautions that may obviate our abuse of this Subject 1 Caution Do not deny this Power of Religion concerning any Person or Party without manifest Grounds Charity binds you to think all are truly Religious that profess to be so unless their Defects or Works palpably blast their Pretences or their Profession be nullified by a direct contradiction As the power of Religion should not be sacrificed to a Ceremony so lesser Faults do not warrant us to accuse men as wanting the power of Godliness Whatever is consistent with the habitual subjection of a Soul to Christ cannot justifie our excluding that Soul out of Christs Kingdom We may say yea must affirm of Men differing from us in many things The same Christ is their Lord and ours Peace and Love are essentials in Christs Kingdom and shall we challenge our own interest by being censorious or enviously narrow the Dominion of our Blessed Redeemer 2 Caution Despise not the external Institutions of Christ under pretence of this Power the Power and Spirit of Christ concur with his Ordinances and the life and vigor of our Graces are exerted in those Ordinances and nourished by them That Spirit is a delusion which puts Men above divine Appointments and the Guilty are as truly