Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A58187
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The pattern of pure and undefiled religion exhibited in the preaching and life of the holy Jesus, shewing the true genius and spirit of Christianity, with an introduction concerning the restoring of true religion by Jesus Christ and his kingdom / by George Raymond.
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Raymond, George, A.M.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing R412; ESTC R33512
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50,348
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160
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against the most pernicious errours and restoring true Religion as they are contain'd in the Sermons and occasional Discourses of Jesus recorded by the Evangelists and by considering how Jesus inculcated and abetted this holy truth as a pattern to us how we should hold and profess and propugne such his Doctrine Secondly By exhibiting the true spirit and genius of the Christian Life and Practice collected from the Example of Jesus And that first By drawing the great lines of his Life as the admirabâ—â— pattern of ours Secondly By appâ—ying the light of this Example for oâ—r Instruction in the necessity nature extent and excellency of true holiness Thirdly By shewing what obligation and encouragement the Life of Christ contains to render us followers of him concluding with an Exhortation to that purpose THE PATTERN Of Pure and Undefiled RELIGION CHAP. I. Containing the Principles of Christian Doctrine JEsus being a Teacher sent from God Sect. 1 to restore true Religion levell'd his Doctrine principally against those Errours contrary thereunto which yet Mankind was very prone to fall into and inculcated those prime and fundamental truths which make up the genuine Spirit constitute the Essence and are as it were the Informing Soul of true and undefil'd Religion As First Concerning the Nature and Government of God. He that lay in the bosome of the father Joh. 1.18 hath reveal'd him to us Whom Men rather conceived of as a powerful than as a good Being a God of wrath and the object of their dread rather than a God of perfect Wisdom and Goodness the object of their love and holy imitation One whom they might possibly appease by Gifts and atone by servile performances little apprehending in the mean while that He was most easy to reconcile and forward to do them good and sufficiently pleased if they were but willing to be made happy by him This was the degenerate and mis-shapen notion of God that inform'd the Religion of the World and render'd it servile superstitious unsavoury and uncomfortable As for the Jews God was their King and they consider'd him as the Lord of their Hosts dreading his Power and limiting his goodness Whilst they reverenc'd his Sanctuary hallow'd his Sabbaths and paid his tyth and oblations they were safe under his Almighty Protection and to them possibly he might make some allowance and bear with the transgressions of his peculiar people but the Nations of the World they look'd upon as the people of his Wrath and either devoted to destruction or not regarded by him who whatever goodness he had in his nature had appropriated that to the Jews only Jesus therefore who hath shew'd us plainly of the Father inculcates worthy apprehensions of God teaching us to conceive of him as the Father of Mercies as kind to the unthankful and freely good towards all and that Universal Love the most generous and fervent Charity the most tender Bowels of Pity these are his true Image and make us like God the children of our Father which is in Heaven Math. 5.44 He therefore tells the Jews that God loved not them only but the whole World and that to such degree as he sent his only Son into it for the Salvation of all that should become willing to be saved by him Joh. 3.16 That He came to seek and save that which was lost and that Repentance and remission of Sins should be preach'd in his Name to All People without exception Luk. 24.47 that God is gracious and reconcileable in his nature and that there is Joy in Heaven at the conversion of a sinner Luk. 15.7 10. In a word the true notion of God is that he is indeed to be Reverenc'd for his excellent Greatness but that he is especially to be loved for his Goodness as being the excellent pattern of all that is good and original of all perfection whom to know is Life Eternal to be like him is to be as perfect as we are capable and to see God our supream felicity and that Vision is the portion of his Children that strive to imitate the Being they Adore and Love that Copy out his Purity his Righteousness and Mercy they shall be blessed for they shall see God Mat. 5. such are the excellent notions of God which the Doctrine of Christ inspires banishing those narrow and stingy mean and servile conceptions of him that had infected the minds and vitiated the Religion of Jews and Gentiles and which Mankind are exceeding prone to fall into Secondly Jesus in his preaching Sect. 2 did especially inculcate the truth of divine Worship with what things God is pleas'd and what is the Worship and Homage he requires of us dispelling the gross Ignorance and dangerous Errours both of the Jews and Gentiles God he tells them is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and truth with the Mind and Soul without shadows and ceremonies Joh. 4.23 as he will not be honour'd with Images so he little regardeth any external performances That he values neither place nor time but every where and at all times he will have Men call upon him holding up pure hands with sincere and fervent minds That he preferreth Mercy to Sacrifice and is only glorify'd by our being fruitful in good works Joh. 15.8 that the Gentile Image-worship was abominable and the Jews Ceremonies trifles and the Pharisaick superstition intolerable with God. To turn Religion into noise and shew to place it in Fringes and Phylacteries in distinguishing opinions or unprofitable speculations in regard to Altars and Shrines to difference of meats and days and such like Traditions of Men this was an offence and scandal that moved the Spirit the meek and gentle Jesus and made him reprove sharply and lash severely the abetters of it Math. 23. Especially they having advanced these trifles and superstitions into the place of Justice Mercy and Faith and the greater things of the Law and made void the Commandments of God through their traditions There is nothing our Saviour tells us entring into the Man that can defile him in the estimate of God but the evil things that proceed out of the heart these defile the man Mark 7.18 nor can any thing on the other hand avail him but what proceeds from a mind full of God and is a genuine fruit of the true knowledge of him That true Religion and true Happiness its natural issue consist in and are the results of a due temper of mind the poor in spirit the penitent Mourners the meek Math. 5.3 c. the merciful the pure and peaceable these are the true Worshippers and truly happy Men. That God needeth not our Prayers to inform him of our wants or to move his pity nor are we heard the sooner for our much speaking but that our due apprehensions concerning God and humble confidence in him fervent application of our Soul towards him and a ready obsequiousness to his Will these render us capable of his Blessings and secure them to us
When our hearts are full of the sense of his power and goodness and our Prayers oblige us to honour him in our Lives when we forgive others as heartily as we desire God to forgive us and pray to our Father in secret with a full trust to be heard and approved by him then we worship him aright and shall be the better for such our serving God though he that is infinitely perfect needs not our Service nor can be profited by us Matth. 6. Jesus instructs us therefore to make our Prayers short and grave fervent and apt to excite Devotion after the Pattern he taught his Disciples Mat. 6.9 And that we pray continually and importunately for those things the desire whereof doth greatly exalt and improve our Spirits Luk. 11.1 13. thus did this great Instructer call Men back to the true worship of God admonishing that they no longer should trust in Sacrifices and oblations in pompous Rites and ceremonious Addresses or any thing of that nature but worship God in Spirit and Truth and be followers of him as dear Children and then they might rely upon it that their Heavenly Father both knows their needs and will most readily succour them in all their distress and bestow upon them all his goods Thirdly Another main Principle Sect. 3 of true Religion taught by the holy Jesus concerns the true motive reason and end of our duty and obedience in which Mankind had grosly misconceiv'd and mistaken and such mistake is most fatal and pernicious to Religion and to that satisfaction and happiness that should be attain'd by it The Pagans ploy'd their Altars and practised their Religion to avert a Pestilence or Famine to obtain the Commodities of Life The Jews would not serve God for nought but were encouraged to expect affluence and prosperity as the reward of their Obedience The wicked Pharisees had prevaricated to the utmost and presumed they might satisfy for Injustice and Oppression by a strict observation of the Ceremonies of the Law and Traditions of the Elders The people generally expected from Christ secular Immunities and Priviledges they followed him for the Loaves Their Fathers they tell him did eat Manna were wonderfully fed and protected in the Wilderness and planted at length in a land flowing with Milk and Honey but what sign shewest thou Joh. 6.30 31. Upon which and all apt occasions Jesus instructs them in the true reasons motives and ends of obedience to God telling them that to make Religion a Cloak to secular designs is to prostitute and profane it and to procure to themselves an inevitable and great damnation Matth. 23.14 That they should not seek any longer the meat which perisheth but that which endureth to eternal Life Joh. 6.27 That his Kingdom was not of this World nor did he promise his Followers extraordinary immunities in it but rather it would frequently so happen that they should be hated reviled and persecuted for their adherence to him There is indeed a true and great felicity the natural result and inseparable consequent of the righteousness taught by Christ but then poverty of Spirit and contempt of the world are parts of that Righteousness and Ingredients of that Blessedness and being revil'd disgraced afflicted and persecuted Math. 5. Mark 7.34 are well enough consistent with it Blessed are they that suffer for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven and their reward shall be great in Heaven That his Disciples must take up the Cross and no Man can be his Disciple that is not resolved to part with all for his sake Luk. 14.33 and the hundred fold restitution that he promiseth is such as consists with persecution Mar. 10.30 That therefore his Disciples ought not to have the interests of this World in mighty Reckoning nor value themselves upon any thing besides their interest in the future and better Life Nay even those miraculous gifts they were endowed withal far exceeding all the gifts of Nature or of Fortune yet were not a sufficient foundation for any great complacency or rejoycing in themselves Luke 10.20 Rejoice not in this that the spirits are subject to you but rather rejoice because your names are written in Heaven His Promise to his Followers is that he will Raise them up at the last day that where he is they shall be also that they shall have a beatifical Vision of God in Life Everlasting that in the mean while they shall bâ— the Children of God and have the lively hope of his Favour the Conscience of their own Integrity the feeling of a happy temper and excellent state of mind and the consolations of the Holy Spirit for their support and encouragement Upon these motives and from the principles of equity and ingenuity love and gratitude to God and a desire of being like him and of attaining that perfection they are capable of he wills them to practise all Righteousness he recommends their duty to them And this is it which constitutes the Spirit and Soul of Christian Righteousness and gives the true stamp and complexion to all our Obedience viz. that it being founded in a right knowledge of God cherished by a holy Acquaintance with him expressed in those things that are Worthy of him making a due difference between the greater and lesser matters of the law be acted from love and gratitude from a conviction of the excellency of Holiness and with delight in it from the hope and desire of Eternal Life and a full perswasion of the necessity of holiness to perfect our nature and make us capable of seeing God and meet to enjoy him This is the Truth as Jesus taught it which he that heartily imbibes and suitably expresseth in his Life he is a Christian a Disciple indeed and shall receive the end of his Faith the Salvation of his Soul. Lastly The Doctrine of Jesus hath Sect. 4 also given Light to the Measure of Righteousness and extent of our duty with respect to some allowances made to the Jews or such things as God winked at in former times of Ignorance For we are assured by him that unless our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of God Math. 5.20 That not only murther and maiming but hatred and revenge yea causeless and immoderate anger will certainly expose us to the judgment of God. That ineffectual Lust makes us guilty before him as well as actual Adultery That the occasions of evil must be avoided and the first motions of Lust repelled or we perish by our indulgence fondness and softness as well as by accomplish'd wickedness That although God tolerated the hard-hearted Jews and winked at the ignorant Gentiles in the matter of Polygamy and Divorce yet from the beginning it was not so nor should be for the future among the Disciples of Jesus That trivial and common swearing makes guilty as well as Perjury but such truth and faithfulness ought to be amongst Christians