Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	kindness_n	lord_n	love_a	1,686	5	9.5041	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35438	An exposition with practical observations continued upon the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the Book of Job being the substance of XXXV lectures delivered at Magnus near the bridge, London / by Joseph Caryl.	Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.	1656 (1656)	Wing C760A; ESTC R23899	726,901	761

passe out against him A if he had said Let not God spare me let him write ●s bitter a sentence against me as he pleaseth for my part I would not conceale the word of the most High but I would publish his judgement and sentence against me yea I would praise him and extoll him for it The vulgar Latine to this sence I would not contradict the word of the holy One Let him not spare me for as for my part whatsoever God shall determine and resolve whatsoever word God shall speake concerning me I will never withstand or open my mouth against it This is a truth and carries in it a high frame of holinesse when we can bring our hearts to this that let God write as bitter things against us as he pleaseth we will never contradict his word or decree but our minds and spirits shall submit wholly and fully to his dispositions of us and dispensations towards us It is as clear an evidence of grace to be passive under as to be active in the word of God Not to contradict his writ for our sufferings as not to conceale what he speaks for our practise But I rather stick to the former interpretation Job giving this as a reason of his great confidence in pursuing his petition for death because he had been so sincere holding forth the word of God both in doctrine and in life And so we may observe from it First That the testimony of a good conscience is the best ground of our willingnesse to die That man speakes enough for his willingnesse to die who hath lived speaking and doing the will of God and he is in a very miserable case who hath no other reason why he desireth death but onely because he is in misery This was one but not the only reason why Job desired death he had a reason transcending this I have not concealed the words of the holy One and I know if I have not concealed the word of God God will not conceal his mercy and loving kindness from me David bottoms his hopes of comfort in sad times upon this Psal 40. 9 10. I have preached righteousness in the great Congregation I have not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest he was not actively or politickly silent I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart if lay there but it was imprisoned or stifl'd there I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvations I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great Congregation Upon this he fals a praying with a mighty spirit of beleeving vers 11. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me O Lord let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me for innumerable evils have compassed me about The remembrance of our active faithfulness to the truth of God will bear up our hearts in hoping for the mercy of God He that in Davids and in Jobs sence can say I have not concealed the words of the most high may triumph over innumerable evils and shall be more then a conquerer over the last and worst of temporal evils death God cannot long conceal his love from them who have not concealed his truth Secondly observe positively That the counsels of God his truths must be revealed God hath secrets which belong not to us but then he puts them not forth in a word nor writes them in his book he keeps his secrets close in the cabinet of his decrees and counsels but what he reveals either in his word or by his works man ought to reveal too It is as dangerous if not more to conceal what God hath made known as to be inquisitive to know what God hath concealed Yea it is as dangerous to hide the word of God as it is to hide our own sins And we equally give glory to God by the profession of the one as by the confession of the other Paul with much earnestnesse professes his integrity about this as was even now toucht Act. 20. Fourthly observe That the study of a godly man is to make the word of God visible I have not concealed that is I have made plain I have revealed or I have published the words of the holy One Much of Jobs mind is concealed under that word I have not concealed For in this negative there is an affirmative as if he had said this hath been my labour and my businesse my work in the world to make known so much of the will of God as I know This was the work of Christ here below Father I have glorified thee upon earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Joh. 17. 4. What this work was he shewes vers 6th I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world Lasty observe That it is a dangerous thing for any man to conceale the word of God either in his opinion or in his practice For it is as if Job had said if I had ever concealed the words of God I had bin but in an ill case at this time God might now justly reveale his wrath against me if I had concealed his word from others or God might justly hide his mercies from me if I had hid his word from men Smothered truths will one time or other set the conscience in a flame and that which Jeremiah spake once concerning his resolution to conceale the word of God and the effect of it will be a truth upon every one who shall set himselfe under a resolution to doe what he under a temptation did Jer. 20. 9. Then I said I will not make mention of him nor speake any more in his name what followes Then his word was in my breast as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing If a gracious heart hath taken up such a sodaine resolution to conceale the word of God he quickly repents of it or smarts under it He findes that word as a burning fire in his bones he is not able to bear it I was weary with forbearing saith the prophet Nothing in the world will burthen the conscience so much as concealed truth and they who have taken a meditated resolution that they will not reveale the word of God may be sure that word will one time or other reveale it selfe to them in the Light and heat of a burning fire seeding upon their consciences I have not concealed the words whose words The words of the Holy One Who is that The Holy One is a periphrasis for God When you hear that Title The holy One you may know who is meant This is a Title too bigge for any but a God All holinesse is in God and God is so holy that properly he onely is Holy Hence the Scripture sets God forth under this as a peculiar attribute The Holy One The Prophets often use this addition or stile The Holy One of Israel The Holy One Is One separate or set apart from all filthinesse

hath every affliction all sorrowes in him and the justice of God may forme the most dreadfull shapt afflictions out of his sins And as the sparke lyes closely in the fire or the flint till you smite or blow them up so sin lyes secretly in our hearts till some temptation or occasion smites and brings it out Againe we may observe That Man can sin without a teacher You need not instruct him or teach him to doe evill He doth that by a naturall instinct since his nature was corrupted He sins as the sparks fly upwards or as a bird flyes in the ayre whom no man directs how to use her wings Nature is her rute There needs much teaching against sin and it is the businesse of all the Ordinances to bridle us from acting our corruptions But man walkes in the ways of wickedness without guide or precept It was the ancient error of the Pelagians that the sin of man came only by imitation they denied that man had a stock of corruption in his nature or that his nature was corrupted but seeing others sin he sinned an opinion which carries its condemnation in its own face as wel as in our hearts And though similitudes are no proofs yet the reason of a similitude is mans sinning is therefore compared to a sparks flying to shew how naturally he sins A spark flyes upward without any to lead it the way and a bird would flye though she should never see another bird flye And if a man could live so as never to see any one example of sin all his dayes yet that man out of his own heart might bring forth every sin every day Example quickens and encourages the principles of sin within us but we can sin without any extrinsick motion or provocation without pattern or president from without Lastly observe To sin is no burden or labour to a natural man For it is his nature It is no paines to the sparke to flye upwards what we doe naturally we doe easily Holy duties are no burdens to a godly man because through grace he doth them naturally he hath an inward principle which dictates the law of holines to him though he should want outward teaching He hath an unction from the holy Ghost and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 2. 20. Not that a godly man becomes like God Omniscient or knowing all for at most we know here but in part but he knows all things necessary and so farre as necessary his new birth teaches him He lives not meerely upon the outward teaching he hath both light liberty in himself and so hath a tendency to these things in his own spirit as there is a tendency in fire to ascend We should wonder and rejoyce to see how grace conquers the course of sinful nature The new man is born to mercy and holinesse to grace and glory as the sparks fly upward Hence it is said He that is born of God cannot commit sin for the seed of God remaineth in him As the sparke cannot flye downward because the heate of fire remaines in it The Apostle affirmes it of himselfe and his Fellow-labourers in the Gospell we can doe nothing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor 13. 8. The possibilities and impossibilities of a regenerate man are directly opposite to those of a naturall man The one cannot sin the other cannot but sin the one can doe nothing against the truth the other can doe nothing for the truth gracious acts become as naturall as sinfull when nature is changed from sin to grace What a blessed change is this that man should doe good as readily as once he did evill that he who was borne free to iniquity should be re-borne free to righteousness as the sparke flye upward A godly man is a heavenly sparke He hath a fire in his nature which carries him upward for ever Thus having opened these two verses being the grounds of the following exhortation let us now examine the matter of the exhortation it selfe contained in the 8th verse Verse 8. I would seeke unto God and unto God would I commit my cause Our Translation omits one word in the beginning of this sentence which though it may be understood in our reading yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expression of it betters the sense Surely or truly I would seeke c. There are two opinions about the meaning of these words Some conceive that Eliphaz speaks in high contempt of Job and I may give you their sense by that proud schooling which the Pharisee gave the poor Publican Luke 18. As that Pharisee insulted over the publican thus I thank God I am not such a one as thou art c. but I fast and I pray c. So they represent Eliphaz here insulting over Job I thank God I am not such an impatient person as thou art no such rude curser of my day or complainer of my trouble I am not I thank God so distracted and so distempered as thou art and if I had been in thy case I should have shewed more wit and grace too then to do as thou hast done I should never have been so vaine and foolish so forgetfull of my own duty or the Lords Soveraignty as to cry out against and accuse his providence and dealings with me to lay about me like a mad man as thou hast done no I would have songht unto God and committed my cause unto him this should have been my course such and such the frame and temper of my spirit But I rather take these words in a good sense implying much sweetnesse and meeknesse of spirit in Eliphaz And so this verse is as an application of the Doctrine contained in the former two As if Eliphaz had said Seeing matters stand thus in themselves and these are undoubted truths that afflictions come from our selves and that our sinnes are our own and seeing thy case stands thus that now thou art under great afflictions and troubles I doe assure thee my loving friend Job were I in thy condition I will give thee faithfull counsell and tell thee my heart what I would doe I would no longer stay complaining against my day cursing creatures distempering my head and disquieting my heart with these passions but I would even goe and addresse my selfe unto God I would apply my selfe to Heaven I would seeke for remedy there earth affords it not I have ever found this the way to ease my heart when burdened to asswage my sorrowes when encreased to compose my spirit when distracted to strengthen my resolutions when unsetled I can give thee this rule with A Probatum est an assurance from mine own experience in the use of it and with clearnesse of conscience that it is my purpose in such cases to use it ever I would seeke unto God The word signifies a very diligent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat quaerere diligenter cu● cur● sed interregatione ve●bi● ut plurimum search I would