Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	grace_n	holy_a	spirit_n	4,640	5	4.9204	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37070	The interest of England in the Protestant cause	Dury, John, 1596-1680.	1659 (1659)	Wing D2864; ESTC R15464	21,459	33

hope that is in us should we not cause our light to shine that others may see it and glorifie our Father which is in heaven what should then hinder a concurrence amongst us to advance the Profession of our unity in Fundamentalls and in the Rules of mutuall edification Verily I am not able to conceive any thing except it be a leaven of jealousie and the animosities which the divided parties aswell for State Interests as other outward concernments have fomented amongst themselves hitherto Now the Lord perswade us to give up our desires to him and teach us to drown all prejudices in his love by subordinating all our private concernments unto the great concerment of the Kingdom of Christ which is Righteousness Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost for he that serveth Christ in these things saith the Apostle is acceptable to God and approved of men Rom. 14 18 19 therefore saith he Let us follow the things which make for Peace and things wherewith one may edifie another I believe that all who are Godly in all the parties are grieved to see the viciousness of the times and indeed who cannot but lament to find that the deliverance and the liberty which the Lord hath miraculously bestowed upon us to the end we should serve him according to our Vows and Promises made in the time of our distress are now turned into Licenciousness so that no where is so much excess of Riot and Wantonness with Pride and Coveteousness with oppression and deceitfulness as here in England where nevertheless the Gospell is more purely and more powerfully preached then in any other Protestant Churches of Europe it is true that the members of the severall Congregations are not guilty of this because their overseers look after them and they are lyable to censure if they misbehave themselvs but these members of Congregations make not up the Body of the Nation and the dissolute unruliness of the common sort and of all that will exempt themselvs from being under any Discipline is without restraint by reason of the scandals of the divisions and distances whereinto professors are fallen So that their want of unity in upholding the ways of Godliness hath opened a door to all disoluteness to break out upon the face of the Nation and it may be truly said but not without grief that if any one abstain but from giving Scandal on the Lord's day he may be in all other things as ungodly and profane as he will Now to remedy the exorbitancy of the disorderly walking of those that belong to no Congregation for whose sake the name of God and the holy profession is evill spoken of amongst the adversaries were it not expedient that the Godly of all parties should agree at least in this amongst themselves to recommend the care of reforming such abuses unto the civill outhority for seeing such as belong to no Congregation but live as Atheists in the World fall under the inspection of those whom God hath intrusted with the Government of State it would be very sutable to the zeal of those that are Godly wise to intreat jointly the authority which God hath established over all the publick concernments of the Nation to Regulate the conversation of such as walk without any controule in all manner of Lascivioness and disorderliness and who knows but that the concurrence of all parties in this desire might by God's blessing give an overture to concur and correspond in other matters also relating to his Kingdom to remove other scandals which break forth amongst the Professors themselves which I hope the Lord wil grant for his name sake therefore shal not cease to pray that the God of our salvation who hath been wonderfull in Counsel and excellent in working for us who hath pluckt us as a brand out of the fire and turned the Counsells of our enemies and Achitophels into foolishness who hath caused light always to shine out of the dark clouds which have covered us who hath brought us by his Almighty arms as upon Eagles wings unto this settlement wherein we are and who hath done all this not for our sakes but for his own Holy name sake that it might not be profaned amongst the Heathen I say my prayer is and shall be that this God of our mercies would pardon all our unthankfulness for the blessings bestowed upon us and that notwithstanding our unworthiness he would graciously perfect the work of Reformation begun which sticks so much upon our hands for he it is alone who can work all our works in us and for us he it is who also will do it O Lord our God are not thy gifts and graces without Repentance art not thou the same from Everlasting to Everlasting and changest not hast thou not in our deepest backsliding when we were even returning into Egypt and when our leaders caused us to erre rescued us out of their hands and set us in a large place as at this day and wilt thou do all this to no other purpose but to destroy us Shall the dead whom thou dost cast off in thy wrath praise thee and when thou hast brought us to the door of a saving Reformation and given us a desire to enter into it wilt thou suffer it to be shut upon us wilt thou suffer the enemy after so many glorious manifestations of thy presence at last to say where is now their God where is he in whom they have trusted Truly we have trusted in thee and still we have none in Heaven but thee and in earth we desire none besides thee there is none else to be trusted into for besides thee there is no Saviour nor refuge in time of trouble But we like Jesurun are grown fat and have kicked we have forsaken the Rock of our salvation we have rebelled and vexed thy Holy Spirit we have forgotten our Vows we have turned thy grace into wantonness the liberty obtained into licentiousness the Gospel of Peace into contenciousness the Truth into formality and the unity of the Spirit into division and singularity Therefore the Interest of thy Kingdom which is our only strength and glory hath been lightly esteemed and neglected self interests have been followed and from thence the fruit of our own animosities strife and envies have overtaken us What shall wee say O Lord our sins do testifie against us wee are ashamed to look up unto heaven and our confusion doth cover us if thou hadst not bestowed the richest of thy graces upon us or if we were ignorant of our duty our guilt would not be so heavy but herein is our sin exceeding sinfull that we do talk of thy Counsell and will more then all the world besides and yet do little or less then any to fulfill it for hitherto all have sought their own and few or none the thing of Jesus Christ fewer do seek him for his own sake only yet be hath sought us and that for our sake even then when we

were his enemies O the depth and hight of thy love What shall we render what can wee return to thee again Shall wee not love thee still shal we not relye upon thy mercy seeing wee know that there is mercy with thee that thou mayst bee feared O then let not our hearts be hardned any more from thy fear but let us now draw neer unto thee upon the account of Jesus Christ who hath loved us and washed us in his own blood let us find access at the throne of Grace to receive not only mercifull forgiveness for what is past but supply of present help in this time of our need Help us to a true Gospell frame and settlement within our selves through love to thee to thy Truth and to each other without partiality Help us to advance thy Kingdom in the Communion of Saints towards all thy Churches abroad whose outward safety is wrapp'd up in our Peace and settlement Help us to mind the oppressed for the Truth 's sake being willing as thou shalt enable us to bear their burdens Help us to mind thy ancient people the seed of Abraham thy friend and the remnant of the Gentiles till the fulness thereof come in Help us to oppose effectually all Tyrannicall and imposing powers and practises of Antichristian subtilty by the lifting up and maintaining of the Standard of Christian liberty and Truth according to the Gospell and to these effects Let the Spirit of wisedom and counsell of strength and courage of all virtue and grace in the fear of thy name rest upon the head and heart of him whom thou hast set over these Nations to govern them in Righteousness Let the same Spirit dwell and preside in the great counsell of these Nations that they may with one shoulder unanimously concur to heal our breaches to join unto thee to settle a lasting Reformation of all our disorders in Judicatures of all publick scandals amongst professors of all defects and corruptions of Piety and Learning in the Seminaries thereof whether in the Universities or in inferiour Schools of common education Let the Magistrates in all places be found faithfull to their trust and the Ministers of thy Word be as thine own mouth to thy people and shining lights before them in the beauty of Holiness Let the Armies by Sea and Land sight always under thy Banner and being faithfull unto thee and thy Cause for the relief of the oppressed go thou before them as their Captain with thy presence and let thy Glory bee their reward And lastly let all the people of these three Nations from Dan to Bersheba be owned by thee as thy people and enjoying thy Ordinances in the Purity thereof the unclean Spirit and those that use a rough garment to deceive the simple may be cast out and Peace and Truth many continue with us so long as the Sun and the Moon shall last Grant according to the riches of thy grace these and all other things subservient thereunto for the sake and in the Name of Jesus Christ thy Son and our Saviour to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be given all praise and glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS A Postscript To the Christian READER TO fill up this Page which otherwise would have been empty I shall impart unto thee an extract out of Sir Edwyn Sands his Book called Europae Speculum or a View of the State of Religion in the western parts of the world page 183 with my observation thereupon He saith thus The end of these unhappy differences in Religi n between the Reformed and Lutheran Protestants will be that their enemies shall laugh when themselves shall have cause to weep unless the graciousness of God stir up some worthy Princes of renown and reputation with both the sides to enterpose their wisedom industry and authority for the uniting of these factions or at least wise for reconciling and composing those differences in some tollerable sort a work of immortall fame and desert and worthy of none other but of them of whom this wicked base world is not worthy Sir Edwyn hath been a true Prophet in this matter the enemies of the Truth have had cause hitherto and have new cause to laught at both our Ecclesiasticall and Civill divisions and to hope thereby for our ruine and I cannot disprove the remedy which he proposes namely that some Princes of power with both sides should interpose either to unite the parties or at least to allay their differences I say this indeavour of Princes is not to be dis-owned onely I would have this caution added that their endeavour in doing this should not be so much Authoritative and Magistraticall as Christian and Evangelicall if then they and their Counsellours could without Politicall ends and Interests in true simplicity and Christian sincerity take the work in hand to follow it as becometh those that serve Jesus Christ in his Gospel-way to lead men to the principle of love of moderation and mutual forbearance there might bee hope by their means to effect somthing in the work But hitherto their interposing hath been very little effectuall because the jealousies of States have been and are such amongst those that manage the affairs of the world that for the least difference upon any circumstantial punctillio of greatness they either fall out or at least break off all concurrence in common designs And if at any time they do concur in settling matters relating to Conscience they then as States mea in Au hority impose them in a way wholly inconsistent with Gospel liberty which can never hold where the light doth more and more break forth For this causeth whole difficultie doth lye in managing the Spirits of men with Christian meekness to gain them to their duty which is First wi lingly to declare that whereunto they have attained and wherein they agree with others Secondly faith fully engage themselves to observe the Rules of inoffensive walking notwithstanding such differences as are exstant among them if these things could be attained not by any command but by a loving perswasion from each party the work might be done both there and here where we have as much need of healing as any where else