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	spirit_n	word_n	4,739	5	4.1204	3	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

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

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

beene misdoubtings And yet if the holy Ghost sets not downe the heart and convinceth it throughly of the all-sufficiencie of that satisfaction it would never beleeve neither And therefore as ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me for I am God too We may know that Christ is God not onely by that which Christ hath done the Miracles which none could do but God but also by what is done to him And two things are done to him which shew that he is God that is Faith and Prayer we must beleeve onely in God and pray onely to God But Christ is the object of both these here he is set forth as the object of Faith and of Prayer in that of Saint Stephen Lord Iesus receive my spirit And therefore he is God for that is done unto him which is proper and peculiar onely to God That which I shall now touch upon is this we must remember what a strong foundation what bottome and basis our faith hath there is God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost and Christ the Mediator that our faith may be supported we have him to beleeve on who supports heaven and earth As in 1. Hebr. and Colos. 1. he created all things as well as the Father he is honoured of all as well as the Father he that supports the pillars of heaven and earth is able to support the pillars of thy soule But how doth faith in Christ ease the soule of trouble In a word as it carrieth the soule out of it selfe unto God in Christ and unto Christ uniting and making us one with him and so sets the soule above all trouble whatsoever for being one with Christ we are already with him in heaven And againe faith is a grace that presents things to come as present and so establisheth the soule It is the hypostasis of things it gives subsistance to them in the promise and it doth never leave to do it till the things subsist indeed It is grace that accompanieth the soule to heaven looking upon things in the word of him that is truth it selfe and so giving a kinde of being to them throughout all the way to heaven till they have a being indeed And then faith is out of office yeelding it up to sight and the full enjoyment of all But did not the Disciples beleeve already Yes they did but they had need to renew their faith as occasions were renewed and as troubles were to increase Beleeve in me it is as he should have said Now there is occasion for you to use your faith I must be taken out of your sight you must see me suffer and you had need of an extraordinarie measure of faith to see me in such abasement and yet to beleeve that I am God We must grow from faith to faith we may live by it continually and we must increase with the encrease of God that as our difficulties do encrease our strength to go through them may encrease also as they prayed Lord encrease our faith I gave some directions how we might not be troubled And first we must labour to have our part and portion in Christ else there is nothing belongs to us but trouble There are two sorts of men in the Church some that usurpe a peace and exemption from trouble as if joy and comfort were their portion Sathan is wise enough not to trouble them and they take an order with their consciences that they shall not trouble them till needs must till the houre of death or some dismall accident the onely way for such is to be troubled that their trouble may be a foundation of their comfort For to such as live in their sinnes against conscience apparantly so that every man may see it and yet are not troubled they have no interest in comfort nothing but wo and misery belongs to them Indeed Christ came to save sinners but it is broken-hearted sinners penitent sinners that are wearie and heavy laden under the burthen of sin And therefore though these speake peace to themselves yet we dare not speake any comfort to them from Christ As Iehu said to Ioram What hast thou to do with peace as long as the whoredomes of thy mother lezebel are so many Dost thou talke of peace as long as thou art a sweater a prophane liver a malitious person against all that are truly good what hast thou to do with peace Now in the visible Church there is another sort that Sathan laboureth to trouble since he cannot keepe them in the state of nature but they breake from him Christ pulling them out of Sathans kingdome by the power of his ordinances and holy Spirit he labours to trouble them in their peace all he can because they be in the world above the world he enjoyes their condition that they should enjoy that paradise which he left the comforts that he once had and therefore he labours to disturbe them in their comforts The estate of such is mixt here in this world they have that in them and without them which will alwayes be a cause and occasion of trouble They have corruption in them not altogether subdued and they have without them Sathan taking advantage against them and the world opposing them These although they have something in them that must be subdued yet something also that must be cherished and strengthened And therefore these are the persons to whom comfort properly belongs In heaven we shall have no need of being comforted for there our peace shall be to have no enemies at all our peace here is to have comfort in the midst of discomfort and an heart inlarged in troubles He speaks this to them here who were beleevers already Ye beleeve in God who he knew should not be troubled Let not your hearts be troubled So that to the end we may be subjects capable of comfort we must be such as by faith are one with Christ and so reconciled to God All motion ends in rest and all the rest of the soul ends in God the center of the soule And therefore before the soule can settle it selfe it must be brought to God through Christ that must be laid as a ground Now there is a threefold malady that troubleth us and there must be a threefold peace and ground of comfort against them First it is a trouble to the soule when once it is awakened that God and it should be in ill termes when the soule looks upon God as angry and is displeased with it Againe the soule is troubled when it looks upon it selfe and sees nothing but turmoiles and seditions there Thirdly when it looks upon the affaires of the world and accidents here below it is full of confusion for the present and it is full of feares for time to come that things will be worse and worse Thus the soule whilest it is in the world is troubled about its peace with God and with its selfe and about this evill world Now before the soule can

yeeld to any quiet all these quarrels must be taken up 1 A peace must be made betwixt God us by the great peace-maker who is also called our peace and when we be justified and acquitted from our sins by the bloud of Christ sprinkled on our souls by faith that bloud of Christ speaks peace to the soule in the pardon of sinne being justified by faith we have peace with God through Iesus Christ our Lord. Then secondly there must be another peace setled in some degree and that is the peace of government in the soule grace must be above corruption They will be together in the soule whilest we are here but sinne must not have the dominion This is such a peace not as will admit of no conflict but a peace wherein grace may get the better and where grace gets the better it will keepe corruption under and God gives his Spirit to whom he gives his Sonne that as we be in good termes with God so our natures may be like his That we may love and delight in what he loves and delights in and so may be as friends enjoying acquaintance and communion together I but thirdly there is confusion in the world and many accidents may fall out that may disquiet us for time to come Now before the soule can be at peace in that respect it must know that being once in Christ reconciled to God and having the Spirit of God it is under a gracious government and providence that disposeth all things to good and maketh every thing peaceable Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia When God is at peace all is at peace yea so farre at peace that they have a blessing in them The curse and venome is taken out of them by Christ who took the curse on himselfe and satisfied the wrath of God and now they be not onely harmelesse but medicinall and helpfull so that they be all ours and made in some sort serviceable to further our spirituall good When our husband hath all things committed unto him in heaven or earth wil he suffer any thing to befall his dearly beloved Spouse that shall be disadvantagious and prejudiciall to the maine No no he will not suffer any thing to befall her which he will not rule and order and over-rule for the good of the Church and so there comes to be that third peace And for the time to come a Christian knows that whom Christ loves he loves to the end and the good work begun shall be perfected to the day of the Lord. He knoweth he is in heaven already in his head He that beleeves in Christ hath everlasting life and is triumphing in glory in his head And therefore nothing can dismay a Christian that is truly in Christ grant the first grant all stand upon good termes with Christ be reconciled to God and nothing can do thee hurt But when we at any time come to comfort such as have comfort for their portion it sticks here if I were a childe of God indeed or if I did beleeve it were something These be good comforts indeed and certaine and true for they be the word of God but what is this to me I finde universally that comfort sticks there and therefore we must labour to remove that objection First of all therfore labour to have a good judgement of maine truths that these comforts are the comforts of the holy Ghost and that the word is the word of God by a generall knowledge of the truth of the promises thou shalt be better able to apply them If thou sticke in the principles so as not to know them nor to beleeve them there is no talking of the application of faith upon them we must make that our owne in particular which we beleeve first in generall And therefore Christians must first be well seene in the Scriptures and in the promises there that they may know what belongs to them and apply them to themselues I but my faith is weake I answer The office of faith is to know Christ and the weakest faith will do that as well as the strongest And when we are once one with Christ then our perfection is to be found in him It is the office of Faith to bring us to Christ and then looke to him for all perfections and for thy title to him in heaven and not in thy faith And true faith is faith even in the least degree of it As we say of the elements every drop of water is water and every sparke of fire is fire And therefore the argument will not hold if we have not much faith we have no faith or if we have no feeling we have no faith There are many common errours which we must remove that they may not hinder us in the application of Christ by distinguishing betweene strong grace and true grace and above all labour to know and understand the covenant of grace The tenor of which requireth no set measures of grace but if we beleeve we shall not perish but have everlasting life under so gracious and mercifull a covenant are we 2 But this is not sufficient to satisfie the soule The very cleaving to Christ is indeed a sufficient ground of comfort but yet to obtaine actuall comfort there must be a knowledge that we do cleave to Christ and beleeve There may be adherence without evidence and there must be an act of reflexion to cause faith of evidence it must appeare to our selves that we do beleeve before we can have comfort though we may be true Christians and go to heaven without it Therefore let us labour to make our calling and election sure that is in our selves and in our owne apprehension though it be never so sure in it selfe and in Gods breast yet we must labour to make it sure in our owne breasts that sinne may be pardoned in our owne consciences that all may be reconciled in our owne hearts that what is done in heaven may be done in our hearts also being cleared to our owne assurance You see what advise the Apostle gives Give all diligence it is not got without diligence nor without all diligence to make our calling and election sure that is to make our election sure by our calling and to that end to adde grace to grace It is the growing Christian that is the assured Christian. Whilest we are yet adding to every heape we shall get more abundant entrance and further into the kingdome of Iesus Christ as the Apostle there speaks 3 And when we have attained any evidence of true faith labour to keepe that our evidence cleare let it not be spotted or defiled by any sinfull acts you have many a good evidence that is so blurred with negligences and daily errours in speeches and conversation that when they reflect upon themselves they conclude Can such a wretch as I that have so loose a tongue that have no more watchfulnesse over my heart have any faith at all And thus