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	speak_v	word_n	9,131	5	4.2861	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35042	A defense against the dread of death, or, Zach. Crofton's meditations and soliloquies concerning the stroak of death sounded in his ears in the time of his close imprisonment in the Tower of London, anno 1661 and 1662 : digested for his own private staisfaction and support in the vale of the shadow of death, and now made publique for the advantage of such as abide under Gods present visitation in London by the pestilence.	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.	1665 (1665)	Wing C6992; ESTC R24795	57,690	178

well and what then Such is the Stat. of Ed. 3. the only law declaring Treason if I do thus dye my guilt is real or reputed Suppose my guilt were real for Lord thou knowest mine innocency wherein I stand defamed to die a malefactor is not inconsistent with eternal salvation I may die for my sin and not dye in my sin I may be most justly punished by men that others may hear and fear Deut. 13.11 and do no more so wickedly for that sin which may be pardoned by the Lord I may be condemned in the world for that crime which shall never be charged on me by my God my present punishment may provoke my repentance and my repentance will most certainly procure me Gods if not the Kings mercy Divine grace is not barred by humane justice the theif crucified with Christ received and confessed so much the due reward of his evil Luk. 23.41 43. yet this hindred not his souls being that night in Paradise with his Saviour and fellow-sufferer The crime not the condition must divide between God and the soul as it doth divide the soul from the body but repentance is the spunge of guilt where God giveth repentance he denieth not remission of the most egregious crime to the most heinous offendor The hand of humane justice may be the help of the sinners repentance and then Tyburn or Tower-hill may be as near as good yea a much better way to Heaven then any other Happy is the stroke of justice 2 Chron. 33.12 which may save the soul from hell Manasseh's fetters made him see confess and abandon his sin the Elect of God are not exempt from the greatest crimes they may fall into and commit them But this is their happiness they are sure to repent thereof and therefore they shall not be eternally condemned for them I envy not some late condemned executed malefactors The murtherous Judges of his late Majesty K. C. first their confidence of salvation and eternal life but I heartily wish that for the glory of God the honour of Christian martyrdom credit of true Religion the real comfort of their friends as well as their own salvation they had more freely and more openly owned their guilt most odious in the light of nature much more of Scripture confessed their sin and justified God and man by their contrition and due confusion under the just sentence of a most righteous law I cannot but think repentance had been more proper matter for their professions then their insultation and rejoycing in their sufferings as if in and for the Lord and their peace joy and courage whereof their surviving friends boast not observing the same abstracted from that humiliation and pensive demeanour most Christianly suitable to so just and sad sufferings If there be in me any real guilt for which I have deserved to dye I pray God convince me of it for I yet see it not and affect me with it if in any thing I have violated the Law though through error or ignorance God give me grace to justifie the righteousness of that law by which I may be condemned and then if my suffering the sentence of the law work in me a sence of guilt unto a penitential submission under the hand of God through faith in Christ my Saviour I shall see cause to confess Gods abundant goodness in saving my soul by the condemnation execution and loss of my boby But O Lord thou knowest the crime by which I stand defamed for which I may be unjustly condemned is reputed and not real for my heart never yet admitted or entertained the least evil thought against the King the Lords anointed if then I dye in mine innocency and as a malefactor my death may administer to me more joy then greif more comfort then contrition more confidence then confusion for howsoever men may condemn me God and mine own conscience will acquit and justifie me Nor am I the first the only one that hath been oppressed in judgement this is one of the common evils under the sun belonging to Gods immediate peculiar vengeance Eccles 7.15 and 5.8 there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness if thou seest the oppression of the poor and the violent perverting of justice and judgement in a Provinces marvail not at the matter for he that is higher then the highest regardeth it and he is higher then they I pray God prevent Englands King and Kingdom from slaying poor In this God hath graciously answered my desire envied and despised me for mine innocent blood will hurt them more then their stroak can possibly hurt me they can but kill my body work for me the glory of a martyr send me to my place and state of rest but this will hazard their souls gall their consciences cast them under the guilt and odium of violence persecution and murther by the sword of justice stain the land with blood which will cry for Gods vengeance and their repentance As for me I am in your hands do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you But know ye for certain that if ye put me to death ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon your selves upon this City and upon the inhabitants thereof for of a truth the Lord hath sent me and stirred me up to speak and write all the words which I have sounded in your ears The reproach of my suffering as a malefactor will indeed and for a time cloud my credit darken my sufferings and deprive God of the honour of them making them a stone of stumbling to many a rock of offence to the weak and wicked but they shall not in the least eclipse the glory of my sufferings and innocency in the sight of God and good men or in the sence of mine own conscience As for me let all men know I wait for a resurrection of names as well as certainly as a resurrection of bodies when the great Judge of all the Gods on earth shall appear to call over the process take cognizance of the error and reverse the false judgement passed by the sons of the mighty Whilst my God and my conscience witness true Religion enforced by right reason to be whole the onely and the real cause of my suffering why should I be troubled at the clamour and seeming black charge of Treason whilst the fulfilling my ministry and the faithful dischardge of my duty is the real ground and only cause of mens wrath and my death Shall I be dismayed that I am Arraigned Condemned and executed so as to be reputed a Malefactor have not all Gods Prophets and Apostles been presented to the World as evil doers and as such exposed unto and derided in their sufferings was not Jeremiah charged with Treason Jer. 37.13 15. Act. 24.5 and Paul with Sedition and both as such imprisoned and afflicted Elijah was the troubler of Israel was not Amos expelled the Court as a Dangerous

they be such things is not eternity the very formality of them is not eternity that massie substance affixed to the exceeding weight of glory which counterpoiseth weigheth down and witnesseth the levity of those afflictions which we now suffer for a moment Eternity is the sting of sorrow but the strength of joy the horror of damnation but the honour of salvation the dread the dolor of the reprobate but the desire delight of the Elect the plague the sting of the gnawing worm and tormenting not consuming fire but the pleasure the lustre of the wedding garment and of the cooling refreshing streams of the waters of life My soul Christ my Savior hath redeemed me from the one and sealed me to the other of these conditions fear not therefore to go out of this body to pass through this red Sea this dark dreadful dismaying gulf into the Ocean of thine Eternity remember consider thy Lord long since declared strait is the gate and narow is the way which leadeth unto life I will by Gods grace stoop at this strait gate I will press through this narrow way seeing life so rich so glorious so blessed life is the end thereof to be enjoyed for ever The Conclusion § MOst blessed Jesus thou art the Lord of life and glory of thine own good will in compassion and pity to lost man thou didst leave the delights of Heaven and of thy fathers bosome and wast cloathed with mans mortal nature Thou hast subjected thy self to death to the most violent shameful and cursed death that thou mightest sweeten and sanctifie this cup in which all thine elect and Saints must pledge thee thou hast tasted death for all men Thou having felt the sting and encountred the strength of death didst conquer and triumph over the grave thou hast gotten thou hast given all that beleive in thee the victory over death thou art in thy Church and to thy Saints the first fruits from the dead thy glorious resurrection is our pledge and assurance that we shall not be always held under the power and dominion of death but that we shall be raised up to raign with thee for ever § I thy weak and worthless servant am under the expectation of death and if thou restrain not the wrath that is in man it may be a violent and shameful death under the dread hereof I look unto and desire to encourage my self in thee the captain of my salvation Be not far from me my God and my Saviour in this hour of my temptation but let thy grace support me under the stroak and save me from the sting of death strengthen my faith unto the full apprehension due application of thy death and resurrection to the curbing of my passions and check of my fears that I may willingly cheerfully follow thee through the vale of the shadow of death O be my God! my God and my Guide unto under death § Death is natural to man common to all men but its nature is changed unto some and but to some of the sons of men this dreadful Executioner of thy vengeance on the wicked is but a grim messenger to fetch thy children home this thy Sheriff executing Malectours putteth the heirs of salvation into the possession of that inheritance thou hast purchased for them and appointed to them the wicked dye when thy friends do but sleep and rest in their beds Be pleased O my Redeemer to know me and make me know my self to be one of that number to whom the nature of death is changed to whom it may not it cannot be apprehended or appear so dreadful evidence and cleer up to my soul and conscience that real supernatural change of quality in my self which may convince me of and secure unto me the contranatural change of the nature and quality of death to and upon me § Union with thy glorious self can only secure against the sting and encourage under against the terrifying apprehension of the stroak of death unite me O Lord unto thy self communicate to me thy grace that only evidence of my union with thee that assurance that only that full assurance that death shall not divide between thee and me death shall not seperate my soul from thee death shall not seperate my body from thee but my dust shall be regarded by thee my death shall be precious in thy sight make O my God the graces of thine holy spirit so legible in me that I may thereby make my calling and election sure and read readily that name that none can read but he who hath it and that I may be certainly resolved in my self that my name was written in thy book of life before the foundations of the world was laid § Thy grace O Lord hath been extended to me make me to see it teach me seriously to reflect it unto thy praise and the encouragement of my soul under and against the terrors of the dread of death I am through thy grace and abundant mercy called by the name I have been born within the pale of thy Church and under the Covenant of thy salvation I was dedicated to thee and thy service as soon as I was born thy covenant was then set on my flesh by baptism and I now bear it on my flesh I dare not with prophane Esau despise this my birth-right but must and by thy grace I will rejoyce that I pertake of the fatness of the Olive and that I am a branch from an holy root sanctified by and unto God Thou didst bless me O Lord with Christian nurture and education I have known thy word from my childhood thou hast seasoned me with and sanctified me by thy truth thy word is truth it hath been the delight of my soul and the direction of my life and faith Thy spirit hath been and is in me the spirit of conviction and of burning by it I see the finfulness of sin and possess with grief shame the iniquities of my youth and the evil of my ways and doings it lusteth against my flesh and draweth disposeth my mind to serve the Law of God when my flesh is forced to serve the Law of sin Thy glorious Gospel thy gracious spirit O Lord hath convinced me of and affected my soul with mine own guilt thy fathers wrath and justice and the salvation wrought out by thee and by thee alone I do beleive there is no name by which men can be saved but thy name most blessed Jesus thou art the true Messiah the only Mediator between God and man the all-sufficient Saviour of all that come unto thee unto thee O Lord I come weary and heavy loaden with my sin Oh give me easie pressed with a dread of thy fathers wrath plead my cause satisfie for me his offended justice be the propitiation for my sins oppressed with my lusts Oh save me from my sin subdue corruptions in me change my nature be to me a perfect Saviour for to thee I run on

but a messenger of divine favour to all who die in the Lord an harbinger of peace to all who walk in uprightness A grim Porter to fetch home to their fathers mansions all that are Gods children Death is indeed a dismal doom on the sons of the first Adam but the discharge of all sin sorrow pain and travel to all the sons of the second Adam death is in its nature vile and odious Ps 116.15 but precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of all his Saints death is exceeding dreadful to such who are obnoxious to its sting but the stroak of death is desireable to all such who are acquitted from and armed against its sting Death by violence containeth in it a curse A good cause and conscience make death a blessing with an emphasis and increase yet a good conscience righteousness towards God and the testimony of Jesus being the cause procuring the same maketh the most base ignominious and cursed death a condition of glory and blessedness the blessing of them who dye in the Lord doth most certainly eminently and especially appertain to such who dye for the Lord. Phil. 1.29 It is a singular gift to beleive in Christ but to suffer and that unto death for Christ is a peculiar gift of special grace all Saints share not in it attain not the honour of it Stephen stoned for enforcing the truth of Religion by the strength of reason Act. 7 55 56. not to be resisted by the adversaries saw Heaven open to receive him at his death The slain for the Word of God and testimony which they held are lodged under Gods Altar in glory Rev. 6.9.10 11. and before the Throne of the Lamb they are cloathed in white robes to attend the Lamb the most cursed and ignominious death is changed and made glorious to just men by having passed on Gods best servants most zealous and faithful Prophets yea the only and beloved Son of God the Lord Jesus our Savior hath made death every any kind of death the blessing of his people My Soul mistake not the nature of death unto the increase of thy dread mind the condition make sure of the qualification which changeth its nature and then death will loose its affrighting vizard and have another aspect in thine eye and thou wilt incline to give it a more free acceptance am I in Christ I am then redeemed from the curse of death can I dare I desire to divert the course of nature Beware O my soul who am I Shall the earth be removed for me Job 18 4. shall I think to alter Gods purpose or to change the course of Gods providence towards men shall I not be satisfied to be saved from the sting unless I escape also the stroak of Death God never purposed Christ never promised to free me from this why do I presume to dream of it to look for it Shall my dread of the stroak darken the glory of Christs love or damp mine apprehensions and esteem of the unspeakable undeserved mercy of being saved from the sting of death God forbid God hath extracted the poyson shall my stomach nauseate and rise against this cup onely because it is bitter Oh no I will rightthankfully take it as the cup of salvation and dismiss my dread and dutifully submit my self to the Will of God onely wise my most gracious Father O my God not my will but thy Will be done God hath accounted poor weak worthless me worthy of the Ministry of the glorious Gospel of his dear Son he hath at this time culled me from among my brethren to bear a special Testimony to his truth to the power plainness purity and simplicity of Christs ordinances worship and officers and to those degrees of reformation in this Church and Nation which have been protested and solemnly sworn to the most high God herein I have beleived for these I have spoken written and disputed and shall I now fear to suffer shall I now dread death the crowning act of all my zeal diligence and fidelity is not this part of the cross of Christ and so the glorious crown of a Minister of the Gospel have I any thing wherein to glory save the Cross of Christ and shall I fear to be seen in my Masters Livery the honour of my now expected death is an high favour a peculiar priviledge an effect of special grace and therefore sufficient to perswade me to be not onely willing but desirous to be offered up by death to and for him who accounted not his life dear for me Death in and for this cause is not more my duty then my dignity the more ignominious it is the more glorious it shall receive the due recompence of reward 2 Tim. 2.12 If I suffer with Christ I shall be glorified with him and raign with him I have all my days wandred in this world like a Pilgrim in a strange Country it is now my Fathers pleasure to call and send for me home shall I refuse to go in the hand of a grim Messenger because of his gastly look and affrighting countenance may not the same bloody hand conduct me to my Fathers House which doth cut down mine and my Fathers foes what though the stroak of death be the same to good and bad the sequels of Death are not the same to both the Red Sea may pass Israel into the land of rest and yet ruine the Egyptians the same Sheriff who doth execute Traytours and malefactours doth put good subjects into the possession of their proprieties though he be dreadful in the one his very posse comitatus is desireable to the other Shall I foolishly draw back fear to be possessed of mine inheritance incorruptible and undefiled because I must be brought and put into it with Halberts Bills Swords and the Sheriffs train and power My Soul chear up reflect on thy self Christ his love and Gods grace notwithstanding my many slips falls and infirmities I will presume to say I have lived the life of the righteous the Covenant of God is on my flesh with God I have desired and endeavoured to walk though I have sometimes wandred and gone astray like a lost sheep I have embraced Christ my Lord and to him I will cleave as to my deer Redeemer I shall therefore dye the death of the righteous although I may be struck I shall not be stung by death Death may pass upon me as the course of nature and as an expression of humane rage but not as the curse of God or execution of his Law Let me make it my care to see my quality changed whilst I live and then I am assured God will change the quality of my death when I dye SECT VI. IF I now dye as mens rage doth threaten mine enemies desire and hope my friends fear and deprecate and my self have cause to expect I dye as a Malefactour and by the sentence of a righteous Law