Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	know_v	see_v	world_n	4,606	5	4.6472	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66419	A sermon preached July 26, 1685 being the day of publick thanksgiving appointed by His Majesty for the late victory over the rebels, in the parish-churches of St. Mildred's Poultrey, and St. Ann's Aldersgate : published in vindication of that, and the author / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1685 (1685)	Wing W2726; ESTC R7297	12,118	36

all good Order and Government Peace and Unity in the World doth so much derogate from the Honour of Gods Providence and his Religion doth so much pervert the Tempers of men that it must needs be very hateful to him who is a God of Truth Equity and Order and so can no more like than he can need such Conclusions and Practices And consequently the Persons holding such Principles and engaging in Practices issuing from and conformable to them must also be the Objects of his heavy Displeasure But it may be said Where is this Principle to be met with and where are the Persons that do hold and defend this Principle This is to be resolved in the last General Which is IV. To shew the Prevalency of this in the Christian World And here I could wish I had nothing further to say but that as no Religion has more discountenanced such Prineiples and Proceedings than the Christian so no Nations nor Persons had more discountenanced the thing than those that have professed it but it is too notorious to be dissembled For that there have been Rebellions against and Depositions of Princes Dissolutions of Governments taking and breaking of Oaths and other things apparently evil of that and the like kind done to serve a Cause a Party or a Church is no Mystery now-a-days And if any one lacks to be inform'd I had rather at the present he should receive it from the Publick Records in which those things are deposited than from me All I pray is That at length the Christian World may understand their Religion better and their secular Interest less or that they would see it to be their best and truest Interest to be guided by their Religion which teaches the wholsome Doctrine of being subject to the higher powers and that they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13.2 And as in the Text That we must not do evil that good may come And according to this Principle of the Apostle that it was unlawful and damnable to do evil that good may come did our Saviour Christ and the Christians of the Primitive Church proceed None ever had a Power greater than our Saviour to confound and destroy his Enemies nor a better end to serve and which he died to accomplish and yet he did not use that power when urged by the Apostles to command Fire from Heaven to consume those that would not receive him but rebuked them and said Ye know not what spirit ye are of Luk. 9.54 55. And the Primitive Christians though so desirous of professing and propagating their Religion that they cheerfully laid down their Lives to bear witness to it and that the World might see they followed not cunningly devised Fables yet never made use of any Secular Power to defend it or themselves when not without it but like Moses endured all things as seeing him who is invisible and that knew when God thought fit and the fulness of his time was come that Truth should over-power all manner of opposition whatsoever And in Conformity to this are the Confessions of Faith in all the Protestant and Reformed Church●s from which there can nothing be drawn that will justifie Opposition or Rebellion against Civil Authority but they expresly declare against it And if any particular Persons amongst them as there are have defended it we know from whence they fetched their Artillery I mean their Arguments and whither they went to sharpen their Weapons And I may say That generally speaking they have acted according to those Principles of Submission in all lawful Things to Superiours and of making no hostile opposition to them So it was in our Nation when Queen Mary was a known Member of the Roman Church yet the Protestants first joined with her against the Lady Jane Grey who was invested with the Title of Queen and was a Protestant And in France the Protestants joined with Henry the 3 d of another Religion and supported him against the League of those that were of his own Perswasion And this particularly is the avowed Doctrine of the Church of England in all its Articles and Homilies at large Three of which are against Rebellion From all which we may understand what Enemies they are to our Religion as well as the Publick Peace that do proceed upon the Principle of doing evil that good may come and that so they set up Religion care not what they do nor what disparagement they bring upon that as well as Injury to the Publick And what to think of those that were animated to the late Rebellion amongst us so happily quelled by this pretence It is evident I think that the chief of them had other Things in their Eye and that it was not so much Religion as Ambition or Revenge or the avoiding punishment for other Crimes c. that instigated them hereunto But if we allow the Reason to be true and not fictitious yet it is not good nor sufficient as I have shewed And we have therefore Reason to bless God that he hath prevented as well the propagating this principle by their success as the Blood-shed and Confusion that would have ensued and the Rebellion and Contention that would otherwise have prevailed with it if not been entailed upon these Nations We have indeed deserved that God should thus punish us whom Plague and Fire and other Judgments have left for the most part unreformed And therefore so much the greater Reason have we for the Blessing of God that he has yet had Mercy for us and that he has rather taken up the Rod to affright us than to destroy us that we may yet sit under our own Vines and Fig-Trees and enjoy our selves and the Fruit of our honest Labours and Industry and what is more the Gospel in Peace The Lord grant that we be truly sensible of his undeserved Favours and may shew our Thankfulness by our Loyalty to our Prince Stedfastness to our Religion and the Holiness of our Lives that by our Submission to Authority the Peaceableness and Piety of our Conversations we may bring Honour to God and our Religion If we thus do good we are sure that Good will come of it for the fruit of Righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace FINIS * It should be six or six parts of the Homily

A SERMON Preached July 26. 1685. Being the DAY of Publick Thanksgiving Appointed by His MAJESTY for the Late VICTORY over the REBELS In the Parish-Churches of St. Mildred's Poultrey and St. Ann's Aldersgate Published in Vindication of That and the Author By JOHN WILLIAMS Rector of St. MILDRED's POULTREY LONDON Printed by R. R. and are to be sold by Walter Davis in Amen Corner 1685. To the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of London MY LORD IT is to Your Lordship that we of the Clergy within your Diocess are immediately under his Majesty accountable for our Doctrine and Behaviour in which if any of us are known to offend it becomes such as know it and are aggrieved to complain to you as our Ordinary for the Reformation and redressing of it But it is of late grown too much a practice amongst some that would be thought not a little concerned for our Church to be the first that censure us and without Examination of the Case or enquiring into the Truth and Certainty of what they report make the wide World the Judg and proclaim our Faults whatever they are or are said to be in the chief Places of Concourse and which your Lordship and perhaps the Party himself knows nothing of till every body knows it and common Fame brings it to your Ears My Lord it has happened thus with me as with others who am not the first nor it's likely shall be the last that is to be thus served For having Preached July 26. the Day appointed by his Majesty for a Publick Thanksgiving for the late Victory over the Rebels there want not some who have reported that I only entertained my Auditory with a General Discourse that was not to the purpose of the Day and Occasion A Calumny I for a while slighted and contented my self to give my Friend satisfaction that first acquainted me with it But when from a deep Design in some to asperse the Clergy of the City from a Credulity in others to believe ill of them and from the humour of an Age from what reason it proceeds God knows given to believe a Lye it came to be a publick Talk It became me if I had no regard to my own Reputation yet from the regard I ought to have to our Clergy which too much suffers by such aspersions and to your Lordship under whose Cognizance it falls to take the most effectual course for the refuting of it by publishing my Sermon how defective soever it may otherwise be This therefore I do without adding any new matter saving what may serve to render it the more intelligible useful and entire which is therefore distinguished from the other and set forth by marks and without making any Alteration so much as in the Words relating to the Day forbearing even those Things that I said more of it as they then offered themselves to my thoughts because I cannot now exactly recollect it though I am sensible it would have been not a little to the Advantage of it I must acknowledg there is not that bitterness and severity with which some eager spirits are gratified having learned from the behaviour of St. Michael not to bring even against an Adversary a railing accusation But if I mistake not the Doctrine I teach doth overthrow the main Principle by which Rebellion is supported a way indeed that may not make so much noise but if prudently and effectually managed strikes it to the Heart and differs as much from the former as fighting and vanquishing an Enemy doth from railing at him And therefore tho I am not able to answer for the order and dress of it which had the Printing been a mere voluntary act of mine I should be obliged to yet for the Truth and Loyalty I may safely challenge those that have adventured either spightfully or ignorantly to revile it the worst of mine or our Churches Adversaries to question it In Confidence of which I do present it to your Lordship and desire to stand or fall as your Lordship shall judg of it Who as in this so upon all other occasions shall approve my self Your Lordships Most Obedient Servant JOHN WILLIAMS To the Parishioners of St. Mildred's Poultrey and St. Mary Cole and of St. Ann's Aldersgate and St. John Zachary HAVING Preached the ensuing Sermon to both Auditories the same day I now present it to you from the Press not of mine own accord for then it had been better fitted for that purpose but as compelled thereunto for my own not to say your Vindication I have already appealed to my Superiours as my Judg to you I appeal as my Witnesses To them Whether the Matter be either true in it self or fitted to the Occasion To you Whether it be the Sermon I Preached I cannot expect that even the most attentive should remember every Particular then delivered but I am confident that you will be able generally to say that this was the Sermon I at that time entertained you with And if this be so as so it is then I need say no more to answer those that have too rashly censured and traduced it as not at all suitable to the occasion it was Preached upon Certainly if the Doctrine therein contained be true viz. that We must not do Evil that Good may come those that first invented and so industriously spread the Calumny are not the best of men whatever end they think to serve by it nor a credit to that Religion and Church they profess to be of I leave such to the Sermon and recommend that you and my Labours amongst you to the Blessing of Almighty God beseeching him to lead us into all Truth Your Servant in Christ Jesus JOHN WILLIAMS The Reader is to take Notice That so much of the Sermon as is thus marked was through want of Time not Preached or else not so fully as it is now Printed A SERMON Preached July 26. Being the Day set apart for a Publick THANKSGIVING for the Late VICTORY over the REBELS ROM III. 7 8. If the Truth of God hath more abounded through my lye unto his Glory why yet am I also judged as a sinner And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say Let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just IN the Former Chapters of this Epistle the Apostle had considered the sad Condition which the whole Mass of Mankind was in whether Jews or Gentiles and shewed that the Jews whatever Preheminence they had of the Gentiles as God's peculiar People and invested with many Eminent Priviledges and Marks of the Divine Favour yet in case of Unbelief and Disobedience they could not be thereby secured against the Wrath of God which is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness ch 1.18 For there is no respect of persons with God ch 2.28 From whence he concludes ver 28. He is