Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	goodness_n	lord_n	merciful_a	1,997	5	8.9155	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23734	The government of the thoughts a prefatory discourse to The government of the tongue / by the author of The whole duty of man.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679.; Fell, John, 1625-1686.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683.	1694 (1694)	Wing A1131; ESTC R16378	90,774	192

Supream Court of Judicature within us and above us and a silent Register of our Thoughts and Words It is a thousand Witnesses as the Apostle says Accusing or Excusing Rom. 2.15 Such is the Impartiality of this Judge that no Bribery can tempt him to Justifie the Wicked nor Condemn the Just but he is the first Revenger of Impiety and an excluder of the Guilty from Absolution 2. IN true Tranquility of Conscience the Heart is cheerful in every Estate and Condition Rom. 5.1 3. and dreadeth no Judge nor Witness It is a continual Feast the Soul's Paradise the Mind 's fair Haven an unvaluable Possession which renders every owner Happy It is an immoveable Comfort the first Fruits of Heaven and Riches which shall never be taken away As no Wind can move or shake the Sun-beams so neither Life nor Death Prosperity or Adversity can Transfix this While this is secure tho Men receive many sharp Encounters as the Citizens of Ai did Josh. 7. Yet are they confident to resist they can resolve with that pattern of Patience Job 13.15 Tho he Kill me yet will I trust in him But if that fail and the Smoak ascendeth their Hearts are under a great Consternation Josh. 8.20 3. THE Almighty Woundeth and Healeth Deut. 32.39 Job 5.18 But it is with his Justice and Mercy The Wise Man says Prov. 6.32 33. We wound our selve by Sin and God healeth us by Afflictions as Chirurgions do with the Lancet and Cautery Sins are the Thieves which rob us and leave us wounded us by the way till the good Samaritan appears with his Wine and Oil to cleanse supple and bind up our Wounds He scourgeth the Conscience with a sense of his Anger to make us sensible of our Sins and to bring us to an abhorrence of them And thus he sometimes Disciplines us with external Afflictions 4. GOD sometimes wounds the Heart and terrifies the Conscience by the Word Preached and then we are Pricked at the Heart and with St. Peter's Auditors cry out Men and Brethren what shall we do Acts 2.37 Sometimes he smites the Conscience with an inward sense and apprehension of his fierce Wrath and severe imminent Judgments in which as the Psalmist complains of Psalm 55.4 5. An Horrible fear overtaketh them like the Earthquake at Horeb preceeding the Still small voice of Mercy 1 Kings 19.11 12. In sense of a Spiritual Desertion while he hideth away his Face Spiritual Wants or permission to some grievous Temptation cold Fits of Despair and Buffetings by the Messengers of Satan in all which tho there be means of Comfort appointed yet none can prevail till the Spirit of God the Comforter return and Heal. 5. THE same Hand giveth the Wound and prescribeth the Plaister as it was said Hos. 5.13 The Assyrians and Jareb could not heal Judah and Ephraim of their Wound so no Mortal Creature can administer Comfort whereby to heal a wounded Spirit till he who correcteth in Measure approaches and bindeth it up Jer. 30.11 c. He only he says the Psalmist Psalm 147.3 He healeth the broken in Heart and bindeth up their Wounds Even he who was Wounded for our Sins and bruised for our Iniquities and by whose Stripes we are Healed Isa. 53.5 CHAP. XXVII What things principally wound the Conscience THERE are some things which Principally afflict and wound the Conscience and comes up as the Prophet mentions 1 Sam. 13.17 like those Philistim Spoilers in three Companies to destroy and drive Men into Despair And the first Apparition and Assault is the apprehension of God's Wrath for some Hainous Sin committed An Instance we have in Cain having Murdered his Brother cryed out My Sin or Punishment is greater than I can bear Gen. 4.13 And Judas having betray'd his Lord and Master durst not approach to him to beg Mercy by reason he apprehended an implacable Anger in Christ. 2. IT is certain according to the Apostles saying That the Wrath of God cometh on the Children of Disobedience Col. 3.6 And that his Wrath is revealed from Heaven against all Vngodliness and Vnrighteousness of Men Rom. 1.18 And that the Impenitent by their hardness of Heart treasure up to themselves Wrath against the day of Wrath That the●e shall be Indignation and Wrath to them that obey not the Truth Rom. 2.5 8. But when thou who art of a wounded Spirit and broken Heart hast well considered perhaps thou wilt find that these things are of no Concernment to thee but to those who live in Sin 3. THE second Obstacle in wounding the Conscience is sense of Spiritual Wants as Hope Faith assurance of Salvation the Spirit of Sanctification and Prayer These being the Graces of the Almighty and the Presence of his Holy Spirit in the Regenerate may yet for the time be an hidden Treasure an Immortal Seed under the frozen Clods without any appearance of Life And the truly Devout may weep and complain like the Penitent Magdalen in the Garden for the loss of Christ when at the same season he is discoursing with them but they are ignorant of his Presence John 20.14 4. THE third Obstacle is fear of some strong Temptations and Tryals at which the afflicted and affrighted Conscience is Amazed as the Disciples were when Jesus slept in the Storm and the Ship was Over-mastered with Waves and ready to Travel to the bottom of the Sea upon Death's Errand Matt. 8.24 25. Or like St. Peter on the Water when he beheld the rough Billows come Plowing before him cryeth out Save Master we Perish Matt. 14.30 When it evidently appears they cannot Perish who are with Christ nor they cannot be Safe who are without him CHAP. XXVIII Divine Considerations of the Afflicted AS God is Just so he is Merciful he is no enexorable Radamanth but he is easie to be entreated Concerning whom we have a Word more sure than any Testimony of Man for the Almighty in Exod. 34.6 being his own Herald thus proclaims himself The Lord merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for Thousands forgiving Iniquity and Transgression and Sin Now if that which others report of the Kings of Israel 1 Kings 20.31 That they were merciful Kings Could perswade them to seek Mercy and to enjoy their Lives and Liberties how much more should that which God who cannot lye hath declared himself Tit. 1.2 move the afflicted Soul humbly to Petition him for Mercy who is more ready to grant it than we are or can be to entreat it for ask it we never could except his preventing Grace and holy Spirit invisibly moved us 2. GOD delights not in the Death of Sinners but in their Conversion Ezek. 18. And as it is a true Prognostick of a Guests being welcome by the good Aspects and Deportment of the Family So it is an evident signal that a Penitent Sinner is welcome to Heaven by the Angels loud Exultations If God in his good Pleasure would have destroyed thee how often

God has promised Remission of Sins Grace Glory and all things necessary for this present Life and the future and the instrumental Motive is justifying Faith from whence it springs for the Apostle tells you Heb. 11.1 Faith is the Substance of things hoped for The supream end God's Glory the subordinate our own Salvation and present Comfort whereby we may effectually offer up our Thankfulness to God to who begetteth us again to a lively hope in Christ 1 Pet. 1.3 8. St. John tells you in his first Epistle 3.3 That he which hath this Hope is purified and the Psalmist animates you saying It is an Expulsion of servile Fear Psal. 5.6.4.5 As also a dependance on God and casting all our Care upon him a Fortitude in bearing Afflictions and a Joy in Adversity The Subject of this Hope are God's Saints Faith and Hope accord in the Cause and God's Spirit giveth both and in the certainty as we believe so we hope All they differ in is this That Faith begetteth Hope whereby Faith hath the Preference Secondly Faith beholdeth the the verity of God's Promises Hope on the Goodness of them as Faith can entertain nothing but infallible Truth for its Object so Hope can enjoy nothing but Goodness Faith apprehendeth the Truth and Hope patiently expects the fulfilling of it Now the Object of this Hope hath four Qualifications Good Future Difficult and Possible 9. GOOD Whatsoever is contrary to it may be an object of Fear which has no coherence with this Hope Now whereas there is a real Good so there is an appearing or seeming one which being not sincere creates a vain or impious Hope as if a Man hopes for Ease Pleasure Riches and Honours These are not Verities nor good of themselves but in their use and so their hopes may be vain and of no duration A Man hopes a Revenge on his Enemy a Satisfaction of his Lusts or the like This Hope is impious and not durable and must in the end render a Man unhappy But if we hope for the Glory of God our Soul's Health and Comfort or what is really good in it self this is true Hope and shall attain to that heighth of Perfection tho to transitory Eyes it seems not to be durable as when we invocate for some Temporal Things which Omnipotency discerneth not to be agreéable to our Necessities or for him to grant as when Christ prayed that the Cup might pass from him and when Moses hoped to go into Canaan Christ was heard and Moses not defeated of his hope because in both God decreed that which was best and that is ever consistent with true Hope which gives not the Deity Prescriptions but confidently expecteth either what it hopeth or something better 10. FUTURE Rom. 8.24 25. Joy is of things Present or so represented as when we rejoice in Hope Rom. 12.12 Hope maketh that present by a Prepossession of that which is to come for Hope acts contrary to that which is present Difficult Such are all things Excellent perhaps deluded Hope makes it an easie step to Heaven and Salvation But they that indeed go that Path shall find it narrow and inviron'd with a World of Difficulties Lastly Possible That which is impossible to Carnal Reason may be hoped for because 't is possible to God therefore Abraham believed above Hope And we expect the Resurrection of the Dead and some things which sinful Men think possible are impossible 11. ALL things are possible to Omnipotence which he 'll perform and he will perform what he has Promised But some things he disannuls and so are impossible Omnipotency will not lie nor be unjust for that importeth Impotency and is a declining of his Attributes To hope that those Asseverations God hath pronounced concerning Supine Sinners shall not be accomplished is a Hope altogether vain and fruitless for it is impossible for the Divine Majesty to be untrue To be resolute in Sinning and yet to hope for Pardon is a frivolous Hope because it is impossible for God to be unjust a severe Lesson for Presumptuous Sinners who resolve to enjoy their Lusts and Pleasures glut themselves with Revenge and yet hope when this Life's Scene is ended the few Petitions of their Epilogue shall purchase favour 12. IF thou goest on in this Career thou wilt be guilty of a gross Absurdity for if thou resolvest to Sin and invocatest the Almighty to be Merciful thou dost in effect beseech God to unthrone himself of his Justice and to be indulgent to an Impenitent Sinner This being impossible it concerns thee to arise from sleep and shake off all vain and deluding Hopes that thou mayst fix on the true and never failing which is the Anchor of the Soul a laying hold on the Land of the Living it is the ease of Sorrows Grief's Asswager Affliction 's Comforter and Despair's Antidote Again it is Faith's Perspective the Nebo where we take a view of the Promised Rest and the Faithful Spy to discover the Holy-Land bringing us the Tastes from Escoll the Fruits of the Spirit the Possession which they hold who enjoy no more and yet are Rich in all Things CHAP. XVII Rules to govern our Hope IN order to this Governance endeavour to fortifie thy Mind with Resolution and Sobriety which will guide to Purity of Life For every one that hath this Hope purgeth himself as he is pure 1 John 3.3 A true Hope with a Resolution to persist in any known Sin is incompatible The Devout Man's Hope never faileth of which Seneca could say That Fortune hath often deserted the Innocent but good Hope never Hope to the End for the Perfection of that Virtue is Perseverance We must wait for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body Rom. 8.23 Though deferred Hope disturbs the Heart Though it tarry wait for it shall surely come Hab. 2.3 What ever Tryals we undergo let us put on Job's Resolution Chap. 13.15 Though he stay me yet will I trust in him We belong to him that Redeemed us If we hold fast the Confidence and the rejoicing of the Hope firm unto the End Heb. 3.6 2. THOUGH through Humane Frailty thou sometimes art assaulted with Fear yet be confident and pursue the Psalmists Rule who expresses What time I am afraid I will trust in thee Psal. 56.3 Fear and Hope may inhabit together especially where the fear of the Lord doth not abrogate Faith's Confidence but Carnal Security Treasure up the Promises of God to that intent were they written and divulged That we through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 Fix not thy rest on this World or place thy Confidence on any thing in it it is but comparable to a broken Reed a slack Rope on the raging Sea or a false Friend in Adversity and like the Quick-Sands on which infatuated Builders lay their Foundations As Moses told Israel Ye are not come to your rest Deut. 12.9 3. ALL temporal Enjoyments are liable to Vicissitudes