Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	faith_n	heart_n	spirit_n	4,438	5	4.9670	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12205	Tvvo sermons vpon the first words of Christs last sermon Iohn XIIII. I. Being also the last sermons of Richard Sibbs D.D. Preached to the honourable society of Grayes Inne, Iune the 21. and 28. 1635. Who the next Lords day follwing, died, and rested from all his labours	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.	1636 (1636)	STC 22515; ESTC S102407	24,191	77

God doth suspend their comforts so that though they may be in a good estate for the maine yet they shall not know it and all because they are not carefull to keepe their evidence which we should preserve cleare and bright that it might be seene and read upon all occasions And we should so keepe them bright that our consciences may witnesse with us and that the Spirit and the Word may joyne their witnesse with our consciences The Word saith That he that loves the brethren is translated to life and he that heares the word as the word is Christs sheepe Now doth thy conscience tell thee that though in weake measure yet I do so Then here is the word and thy conscience for thee and doth the spirit witnesse with thy conscience that it is so indeed then it is well thou keepest thy Evidence to purpose 4 And when we have done this let us make conscience not to yeeld to any base doubts and feares and objections of Sathan and our owne hearts When we finde any worke of grace deny not the worke of God lest we grieve the Spirit of God As some melancholy Christians that though every man may see the worke of God in them yet yeeld so slavishly to the misguidings of their hearts and the temptations of Sathan that they conclude they have no faith no love though other Christians that can reade their evidence better see that they have these in them what dishonour is this to God and his Spirit when a darke humour shall prevaile more then the Word the truth it selfe this is a great bondage which Sathan brings the soule into that when there is evidence of faith in the fruits of it yet men will beleeve a peevish humour before the word and testimony of conscience enlightned by the spirit Take heed of it as a great pride in the heart when we yeeld more to a sturdy darke unsubdued humour then to Evidence it selfe Therefore in such cases hearken not to what feare sayes or humour saith or Sathan saith or what the world saith but hearken what truth it selfe saith and what conscience saith when it is enlightened by the Spirit as in good times when we are at the best True Christians though more remisse shall have so much comfort as shall support them from falling into despaire yet not so much as shall strengthen them and carry them into a vigorous life fit for Christians 5 When we have found any worke of grace and thereupon that our faith is true we ought to comfort our selves and to maintaine our comfort by all meanes Everie grace is but faith exercised when our Saviour saith Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me he might have said also in particular Be patient be contented be comforted But he names the root of all Faith wherein all graces are radically which is therefore discerned in the fruits of it so that if any grace be found as love to the brethren hope of life everlasting or the like there is faith For the root and branches be together though the root is not alwayes discerned And therefore when we discover any true faith in the fruit of it let us support and comfort our selves with it For when a man is in Christ and by Christ an heire of heaven and a childe of God what in the world can befall him that should deject over much and cast him downe What losse what crosse what want of friends hath he not all in God and in Christ and in the promise Do not the promises weigh downe all discouragements whatsoever Surely they do And therefore we must strive against dejection For besides what I spake the last day it is a dishonour to the profession of Religion which is in it selfe so glorious what a dishonour to God and to Christ when we have such glorious prerogatives and priviledges which the Angles themselves admire yet every petty crosse and losse that we meet withall in the world should cast us downe we should take heed exceedingly of this and should labour every day to have a more and more cleare sight of the promises that belong unto us and to know the priviledges of Christianity and renew our faith in them continually that they may be fresh to us in all temptations and occasions whatsoever I beseech you do but consider any one grand promise which if it be rooted in the soule how it is able to support the soule against all troubles whatsoever As that Feare not little flocke for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdome Or that other If God spared not his Sonne for us how will he not with him give us all things else Labour to have these things fresh in memory together with the priviledges belonging to Christians Thinke what is it to be a childe of God and an heire of heaven We must not looke onely to the blinde and darke side of our condition Christians have two sides one to heaven ward and God-ward and that is full of glory certaine and immoveable Another towards the world and that is oftentimes full of abasement full of disgrace and dejection That is moveable sometimes better sometimes worse as God pleaseth to dispense his government in the Church Let us looke to the grace to the comforts that belong to that grace to the promises the best side and not to be carried away with the darknesse of the other It is a terrible sight to looke upon sinne and miserie and hell and judgement to come but what are these to a Christian that is in Christ that seeth them all subdued and overcome to him The afflictions of the world and the crosses of the world what are they to a soule that is alreadie in heaven by faith and seeth them all overcome in his head Christ Be of good comfort I have overcome the world And therefore we must not be so malignant as to looke all upon one part of a Christian and that the worser part which is the object of sence for shame live not by sence but if we be Christians let us live by faith looke to the best part looke upwards and forwards to that which is eternall 5 And withall labour to keepe the grace of the Spirit in continuall exercise upon all occasions For grace exercised brings certaine comfort it may be with a Christian in his feelings as with the worst man living but he may thanke his owne negligence his owne dulnesse his not stirring up of the graces of God in him For therefore it is that he hangs the wing upon every pettie crosse on every occasion Labour to have an heart ready to exercise grace suteable to that occasion for then grace will reflect sweetly where there is sinceritie and grace in exercise Sinceritie alone will not comfort a man unlesse it grow up to fruitfulnesse and fruitfulnesse which springs from the exercise of grace hath a sweet reflection upon the soule Remember Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and

much sorrow and griefe what a great deale of dishonour do we to God it proceeding from a mistake of his goodnesse and providence And with over much feare and sorrow there is alwayes ioyned murmuring and discontent and a spirit unsubdued to God and his Spirit There is a wronging as of his care in providence so of his gratiousnesse in his promises There is a grieving of his good Spirit a questioning of his government as if he did not dispose of things as he should when we will have it one way and God will have it another way There is likewise a great deale of pride in dejections and discontent The most discontented spirit in the world is the Devill and none prouder It argues a great deale of pride and sullennesse to be affectedly sad and deiected as if such worthy and excellent persons as we should not be so afflicted Or there were greater cause for us to be deiected then raised up Whereas if we ballance our grounds of comfort being Christians as we should do they would appeare incomparably above the grounds of our discouragements so it is a wrong to God and his truth and his gracious sweet government to yeeld to a dejected sullen disposition It is likewise a wrong to others for it maketh us unfit for any office of love to them when we plodde and pore so much upon our discontentments and drink up our spirits and eate up our hearts it disables the soule taking away not onely the strength but also the willingnesse of the soule Besides the scandal that it brings on Religion and the best wayes as if there were not enough in Religion to comfort the soule But you will say Religion breeds a great deale of trouble and pensivenesse It is indeed the speech of the shallow people of the world Religion makes men sad And it is true that as our Saviour Christ here had made his Disciples sad by telling them that they would leave him and that a great scandall would be taken at his Crosse and shamefull suffering but yet withall bids them not be troubled and gives you grounds of comfort so Religion will make men sadde For it discovers truths and sad truths I but the same Religion will cheare them up againe yea it casts them down that it may raise them up The uSnne in the morning raiseth clouds but when it hath strength it scatters them God intending solid and substantiall comfort doth first beget troubles and discovers true grounds of trouble he lets us see that all is not well but still as Religion brings any trouble so it brings with it greater remedies against thse troubles and that God that raiseth a soule to see just matter of griefe will by his spirit shew its due and right portion in comfort Thus to be sorrowfull and sad in some measure is from Religion but that which will prevent the excesse and over measure of it is from Religion likewise So that it is a scandall to Religion to be over much dejected Besides though we should be troubled for sinne yet to be over much troubled for sinne is a dishonour to Christ and to the love of God in Christ for it is as if we had not in him a sufficient remedy for that great maladie As be it griefe for the troubles of the Church as not to be troubled at the affliction of Ioseph is branded for a sinne So to be too much cast downe as if Christ had cast off the government from his shoulders or had not the name of the Church on his breast in heaven as the high Priest had the names of the 12 Tribes in his breast plate to be so cast downe as to be taken off from prayer and from the use of all good meanes to helpe the Church this is sinfull So also when griefe for sinne makes us forget the mercies of God in Christ to forget the healing vertue of him our brazen Serpent to neglect to search our grounds of comforts and to yeeld to Sathan to temptation Even over much sadnesse though it be for sinne or for the Church it is hurtfull and scandalous Iosuah was much cast downe when he saw it went not well with Israel but get thee up Iosuah saith God what doest thou lying here up and do thy duty consider what is amisse There is an Achan in the Campe and so when things go not well let not your thoughts be conversant about the matters of trouble so much as about your duty So we see it is incident to Gods people to be over much troubled and we see also the reasons why it should not be so because it is injurious to God to our selves and others every way And after all this there is much reason in this that Christ hath forbidden it let not your hearts be troubled But Christ could as well have cured it being God as easily as forbidden it It is true but he cures it by forbidding it with the words there went forth a spirit of comfort into their hearts an influence of grace accompanied his commands for the word and Spirit God together Christ deales with men by men The spirit of comfort is a spirit of truth and therefore God comforts by truths He gives us sanctified understandings and affections and then works on them by sanctified truths And sometimes Christ cures it by reall comforts for comforts are either rationall which are fetched frō grounds which faith ministers or reall from the presence of any thing which comforts as the sight of friends or the accommodating of us in any thing wherein we see the love of God conveighed how many reall comforts doth God bestow when he fitteth us with conveniencies in our way to heaven so that we may teade the love of God in them God doth not onely comfort us by his gracious promise by his Word and Sacraments administring heavenly comforts by them but also by the conveighing of himselfe and his love by outward comforts that we enjoy in the world howsoever carnall men abuse them making all things to work for the worst yet that love that intends heaven sweetens all things in the passage to heaven to his children because they see the love of God in the least comfort Againe observe from this here let not your hearts be troubled what is the seat of comfort the heart the seat of comfort is the fear of griese There must be an application of comfort suitable to the griefe and the heart must be comforted And therefore in Isa. 40. 1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people speake to the heart As the griefe sinks and soakes to the root of the heart so do Christs comforts like true cordials indeed that go as deepe as the grievance If the griefe goes to the heart the comfort must go as deepe Now God the Father of spirits and the holy Ghost the Comforter knows and searches our spirits they know all the corners of the heart they can banish feare and sorrow out of

every cranny and bring light heat and influence into every part of the soule And therefore Christ saith Let not your hearts be troubled Now for the wayes whereby we must labour to comfort our hearts amongst many that I might speak of I will name a few First of all there must be a due search into the heart of the grounds of our trouble for oftentimes Christians are troubled they cannot tell wherefore As children that Will complaine they know not why I speake not of hypocrites that will complaine of that which is not a true griefe to them like some Birds that make greatest noyse when they be furthest from their nests But of some poore Christians that are troubled but distinctly know not the ground of it But search the heart ingenuously and truly to the bottome of it and see if there be not some Achan in the Camp some sinne in the heart for sinne is like winde when it gets into the veines it will have vent and a troublesome one and so will sinne if it get into the soule it is that indeed which causeth all trouble And therefore search your hearts throughly what sinne lyeth there unrepented of and for which you have not beene humbled And when you have found out your sinne give it vent by confession of it to God and in some cases to others And when we have done so consider what promises and comforts in the word of God are fitted to that condition for we can be in no condition but there are comforts for it and promises fitted to yeeld comforts for every malady And it will be the wisedome of a Christian to accommodate the remedy to the sore of his heart And therefore we ought to be skilfull and well seene in the word of God that we may sore up comforts before-hand Our Saviour Christ tels them before-hand of the scandall of the Crosse and of Peters deniall that they might lay up strength and spirituall armour against the day of tryall Those comforts do not for the most part hold out in the day of adversity which were not procured in the day of prosperitie It is not wisedome to be to learne Religion when we should use it and therefore let us be spirituall good husbands for our soules by storing up comforts out of the Word of God and then we shall have no more to do then to remember the comforts that we did before-hand know And there be some promise of more generall use that are Catholica fitted for all sorts of grievances and of these wee must make use when we cannot think of particular ones As the promises that concerne forgivenesse of sinnes Thinke of Gods mercy in pardoning sinne with admiration because sinne will be presented us in such terrible colours that if God be not presented in as gracious colours wee shall sinke and therefore set out Christ in his mercies and all sufficiencie when sinne is aggravated to be in its hainousnesse and out of measure sinfulnesse as the Prophet Michah doth Who is a God like our God that pardoneth iniquitie transgression and sinne c. Likewise how many promises and comforts are there in that one promise Luk. 11. He will give his spirit to them that aske him And here our Saviour promiseth to send the Comforter all graces and all comforts are included in the Spirit of grace and comfort his Spirit is a Spirit of all grace and therefore our Saviour thought that the promised enough when be said he would send them the Comforter And so what a world of comfort is in that promise All things shall worke together for the best to them that love God yea those things that are worst shall work together though they be hostile and opposite one to another yet they joyne issue in this they be all for the good of Gods people As in a clocke the wheels go severall wayes but all joyne to make the Clocke strike And so in the carriage and ordering of things one passage crosses another but in the issue we shall be able to say all things worke together for the best I found God turning all things for my good And I could not have beene without such a crosse such an affliction And so for present assistance in your callings or straits remember that promise made to Iosuab which is repeated in the 13 of the Hebrews I will not faile thee nor for sake thee a promise which is five times renewed in Scripture and how much comfort is in that that he will vouchsafe by his spirit a gracious presence in all conditions whatsoever And likewise that of David Psalme 23. Though I walke in the valley of the shadow of death yet will I feare no ill for thou art with me It was a terrible supposition made that though he should walke in the valley of the shadow of death yet he would feare no evill These promises well digested will arme the soule with confidence that it shall be able to put any case of trouble As in the 27. Psalme David puts cases The Lord is my strength the Lord is the light of my countenance of whom shall I be afraid Though thousands shall rise against me yet in this I will be confident If our hearts be established by the word of God setled in the truth of such promises by the Spirit of God we may set God and his truth against all troubles that can arise from Sathan and hell and the instruments of Sathan or our owne hearts And therefore it is a great wrong to God and his truth if we know not our portion of comfort and use it as occasion serves More particulars I omit leaving them to your owne industry the Scripture being full of them When we have these promises let us labour to understand them throughly to understand the grounds of our comfort in them and to beleeve the truth of them which are as true as God who is truth it selfe And then to love them and digest them in our affections and so make them our owne and then to walk in the strength and comfort of them Labour likewise to have them fresh in memory it is a great defect of Christians they forget their consolation as it is in the Hebrews though we know many things yet we have the benefit of our comfort from no more then we remember But above all if we will keep our hearts from trouble let us labour to keepe unspotred consciences Innocencie and diligence are marvellous preservers of comfort And therefore if the conscience be sported and uncleane wash it in the bloud of Christ which is first purging and then purifying It first purgeth the soule being set aworke to search our sinnes and confesse them which maketh us see our need of Christ who dyed to satisfie divine justice Then God sprinkles our heart with this bloud which was shed for all penitent sinners by which when the heart is purged the conscience will be soone satisfied also by Christs bloud And

bodily or spiritually Their errour was in tying all comfort to a bodily a corporall presence As if it were necessary for the Sun to come downe and abide upon the earth to bestow its heat and influence and therefore he tels them that though he was to goe away yet he would send another comforter the holy Ghost And then they were overcome by an opinion that it would go worse with them when Christ was gone therefore Christ telleth them that it should bee better for them and indeed it was better Christ did not take away his blessed presence for their disadvantage but for their good God never takes any thing from his children but he maketh it up in a better kinde If Christ takes away his bodily presence he leaveth his spirituall presence and more abundantly So that though they were led with sensible things and what they saw not they could hardly beleeve yet Christ lookes to what is good in them and accepts it hee saw what was naught in them with a purpose to purge it what was naturally weak in them to strengthen it and therefore hee counsels them Let not your hearts bee troubled The thing that I will first observe out of the words is That the best Christians are subject to be troubled to be pensive and dejected more then should be Indeed our Saviour Christ himself was troubled but his trouble was like the shaking of cleare water in a christall glasse There was no mudde in the bottome but our trouble is of another kinde and apt to be inordinate We may carry this truth through the whole Scripture and shew how Hannah was in bitternesse of spirit which exceeded so that Eli a good man mistakes her supposing that she was overcome with drinke Hezekiah a good King was in such bitternesse that like a crane or swallow he did chatter And David complained that his spirit was over-whelmed within him And Ionah cries out that he was in the bellie of hell And God will have it so partly for conformity to our head and partly that we may be known to our selves that we may discerne where our weaknesse lyeth and so be better instructed to seeke to him in whom our strength lyeth He suffers us likewise to be troubled for the preventing of spirituall sinnes pride and security and the like And partly in regard of others that we may be pittifull Christ was man for this end that he might be a merciful high Priest and we have much more need to know and feele the infirmities that are in our selves that we may be mercifull to others that we may not be harsh and censorious upon the troubles of others from want of which consideration proceeded Elies rashnesse in passing that censure upon Hannah But how shall we know we know that our hearts are more troubled then they should be For I lay this for a ground That we may sinne in being over-much troubled at things for which it is a sinne not to be troubled If they had not beene at all affected with the absence of Christ it had beene a sinne and no lesse then stupidity yet it was their sinne to be over much troubled In a word therefore for answer a trouble is sinfull when it hinders us in dutie or from duty when it hinders us in duties to God or to others Or from duty that is when the soule is disturbed by it and like an Instrument out of tune made fit for nothing or like a limbe out of joynt that moves not onely uncomelily but painfully becomes unfit for action when we finde this in our trouble we may know it is not as it should be There be some affections especially that are causes of over much trouble feare of evils to come sorrow for evils that are present seize on us Now when these do hinder us from duty or trouble us in dutie they be exorbitant and irregular Naturally affections should be helps to duty they being the winde that carry the soule on and the spirituall wings of the soule so that a man without affections is like the dead sea that moves not at all But then they must be regulated and ordered they must be raised up and laid downe at the command of a spirituall understanding when they be raised up of themselves by shallow and false conceits and opinions they be irregular when they be raised up by a right judgement of things and laid downe againe when they ought to be then they are right and orderly Now besides the hurt that is in such affections themselves Sathan loves to fish in these troubled waters The affections are never stirred and raised up irregularly and exorbitantly but Sathan joynes with them And therefore we have need keep our affections of griefe and feare within their due bounds Sathan is a curious observer of any excesse in our passions and in just correction to speake the mildest of it God lets loose Sathan to ioyne with that excesse And therefore the Apostle saith wisely Let not the Sunne go downe upon your wrath neither give place to the Devill because as soone as ever we give way to any excesse of affection Sathan fishes in these waters and ioynes with that excesse He being a spirit of darknesse loves to dwell in the soule when it is in darknesse And therefore when it is clouded by passion as all passions beyond their due measure are as clouds that darken the soule Sathan that works in darknesse then seizes on the soule presently That was Sauls case he was envious at David being of a proud and haughty spirit that could not endure competition and Sathan took his time to work on him And therefore it is said he was troubled with an evill spirit But trouble of Spirit is too large an Argument I will not now stand upon it onely I will shew that we should not yeeld to excesse of trouble any way And the reasons are First we wrong our owne selves when we give way to griefe and sorrow that is immoderate and inordinate The soule is as it were put out of joynt by it we make actions difficult unto us the wheeles of the soule are thereby taken off joy and comfort are as it were oyle to the soule And therefore Nehemiah saith The joy of the Lord is your strength when therefore we give way to feare and griefe and such passions it weakeneth the soule in action And then againe they are as it were a cloud betwixt Gods love and us and so the soule is hindered of much comfort and enlargement ioy enlargeth the soule but griefe strengtheneth it comfort raiseth up the soule griefe and sorrow weigh downe the soule A Christian should be of a straight upright and enlarged spirit When therefore the spirit is streightened when it is prest downe and deiected a Christian is not in his right minde in his due and proper frame Besides if we regard God himselfe we should take heed that the soule be not thus distempered for by over