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	scripture_n	word_n	9,016	5	4.5069	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A00816	Compassion towards captives chiefly towards our brethren and country-men who are in miserable bondage in Barbarie. Vrged and pressed in three sermons on Heb. 13.3. Preached in Plymouth, in October 1636. By Charles Fitz-Geffry.	Fitz-Geffry, Charles, 1575?-1638.	1637 (1637)	STC 10937; ESTC S102148	49,481	72

with them WHether S. Paul or Barnabas or Clemens or what Apostle or Apostolicall person was the pen-man of this pretious Epistle it is not much materiall though it have beene much argued among the learned some judging it neither to be Pauls nor canonicall some to be canonicall but not Pauls some to be both canonicall and also penned by S. Paul True it is that Faith it selfe is ready to fall if the authority of holy Scriptures do once begin to faile But these pillars of truth doe stand on firmer pedestalls then are the feet of flesh and blood namely the spirit of truth who being the prime Author is also the surest evidencer that all holy Scripture and particularly this sacred Epistle is undoubtedly the word of God And as in the letters of Princes it is not greatly regarded who was the the scribe that wrote them while the seale that is on them doth manifest from whom they came so in holy writings we stand not too much on the pen-man while we finde the seale of the Spirit upon them and doe perceive by the character of the Holy Ghost that they were indited by him This doe we finde and therefore thus doe wee hold concerning this divine Epistle which although it begin not with the same stile that S. Pauls other Epistles doe yet it endeth in the same manner For as that blessed Apostle so the Author of this Epistle upon the doctrine of faith layed for a foundation raiseth precepts of manners and rules for godly life as the building And because next unto faith whereby we are united unto the head love is most necessary whereby the members are knit together therefore the holy Authour immediately after the doctrine of faith exhorteth unto brotherly love Let brotherly love continue And because wee must not love in word nor in tongue but in deed and in truth therefore he exhorteth to manifest our love by action especially to such as have greatest need and occasion Two sorts of people there were in those times as still there are who suffered persecution for the Gospell strangers and Captives Strangers driven from their owne places and houses enforced to take up deserts dens and caves for their habitation Captives who were housed indeed but to their greater paine detained in their bonds and prison for their faith and profession Vnto both these severall offices of charity are to be extended Vnto strangers hospitality unto prisoners compassion and pity The former when they come unto us must be harboured Be not forgetfull to harbour strangers But as for poore prisoners and Captives they good soules cannot come unto us they are bound to the contrary therefore it is our duty to visit them either in person if we may have accesse or by provision if we can send to them or by prayers and supplications unto God for them and by sorrowing for them as if we suffered with them Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them This is my text whereof the scope and substance is An exhortation to pity and compassion towards them that are in bonds and captivity especially for Christs sake Wherein I finde presented to our consideration 1. Others misery 2. Our Duty Their passion our compassion Their misery is bondage and captivity They are in bonds Our duty is to extend unto them a twofold mercy 1. Consideration we must remember them 2. Compassion we must so remember them as if we our selves were bound with them Remember Thinke upon their calamity and affliction Let not your owne safety make you forgetfull of others misery let not your enjoyed liberty drive out of your remembrance their calamitous captivity Them that are in bonds All them that are in bondage chiefly such as doe suffer for their conscience and for their Christian profession As bound with them As if your selves were in the same place and case Make their bondage your thraldome their suffering your owne smarting Have a fellow-feeling with them as being members of the same body which is implyed in the last part of the verse But my text hath more need of pressing then of paraphrasing The sence is obvious enough to our understanding would God the substance thereof could as easily worke upon our affections I will God willing use mine endeavour attending his blessing without whom all mans endeavours are nothing or to no purpose And first consider wee others misery that so we may be the better incited to our owne duty Their misery is that they are in bonds Remember them especially because their condition is most hard and lamentable For Captivity is ● most grievous kinde of calamity Bondage is an heavie burthen imprisonment a great affliction aske Ioseph if it be not so Among all the miseries he endured by his brethrens malice none pinched him more then his imprisonment How emphatically speakes the Psalmist of it The iron entred into his soule Though he were vpon the matter at liberty in prison and rather a Keeper then a Prisoner the keeper committing all the prison●rs into his hands yet all this could not countervaile the losse of his liberty All the suite he made to Pharaohs chiefe butler for interpreting vnto him the dreame of his deliverance was that he would thinke on him and make mention of him vnto Pharaoh and bring him out of that house Paul in his wish that both King Agrippa and all that heard him were not almost but altogether such as he was excepted his bonds as if he would not wish them to his greatest enemy not to them who kept him vniustly in those bonds The greatest plague which God inflicted on the Iewes for their idolatry was bondage and captivity Needs must that be one of his greatest rods wherewith he useth to scourge the greatest sinners Be the imprisonment never so mild the bonds never so easy the bondage not accompanied with those calamities that doe vsually attend it yet want of liberty is sufficient to make vp misery Liberty is that which all men doe desire next vnto life esteeming it no life which is deprived of liberty but only a breathing death Some mothers have thought themselves mercifull to their children when they have murthered thē with their own hands that death might save them from bondage Buris and Spartis two resolute Lacedemonians who had slaine the Heralds of king Xerxes when their lives were offered them on condition that abandoning their country they would attend vpon the king they refused and rather desired any kind of death saying to a noble man who perswaded them to accept of the kings royall offer you know not how pretious a thing freedome is which no man who is well in his wits will exchange for all the Persian monarchy Give us said couragious Brutus either life with liberty or death with glory How sweet a thing then is liberty which is purchased with death and therein preferred before life