Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	lead_v	scripture_n	spirit_n	6,729	5	5.9292	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86368	Eighteene choice and usefull sermons, by Benjamin Hinton, B.D. late minister of Hendon. And sometime fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge. Imprimatur, Edm: Calamy. 1650.	Hinton, Benjamin.	1650 (1650)	Wing H2065; Thomason E595_5; ESTC R206929	221,318	254

would prophane the Name of God by swearing as they would have had him by the fortune of Casar So hainous a sinne was it thought by this Martyr to swear by the creatures If it be objected That the Scripture maketh mention of some holy men that have sworn by the creatures as that Joseph swore by the life of Pharaoh Gen. 42.16 2 King 2.4 Gen. 42.16 and that Etisha swore by the soule of Eliah 2 King 2.4 The answer is That either they are not oaths but onely vehement obtestations as some Divines do hold or if they be oaths yet because they are contrary to the Word of God that we are not to imitate their examples but we may say of them as St. Angustine said in another case Haec quidem in Scripturis santis legimus non ideò tamen quia facta credimus facienda creáamus ne duns passins sectamur exempla violemus pracepta We read saith he indeed of such examples in the Scriptures not that because we believe they vvere done we should therefore believe they may lawfully be done left so we violate the commandement of God vvhile that vve seek to imitate the examples of men But thus much likevvise for the object of an oath I come novv to the conditions Thou shalt swear in truth in judgement and in righteousnesse The first condition vvhich is required in an oath is that we swear in truth God to inflame us the more vvith the love of Truth is called in the Scripture Deut. 32.4 John 14.6 John 15.26.1 Tim. 3.15 the God of Truth Our Saviour calls himselfe the truth the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of truth Gods Word is called the Scripture of truth and his Church is called the pillar of truth To note unto us That they who are Members of his Church they who are instructed in his holy Word they who are led by his holy Spirit they who are redeemed by his Son and adopted by God to be his children they of all others are to stand for the truth to imbrance it in their hearts to testisie it in their words and when occasion requires to confirme it in their oaths And to this end God hath given us his sacred Name as a Seal to ratifie and confirme the truth that in matters of importance the truth vvhereof cannot otherwise be known but by taking an oath vve might use Gods Name and call God as a vvitnesse to the truth of our speech Whensoever therefore vve take an oath vve must be sure that the matter be true vvhich vve swear otherwise vve commit a most bainous sin in calling God as a vvitnesse to that vvhich is false And vvhereas an oath is of two sorts either assertory of things that vve affirme or promissory of things vvhich vve promise to performe vve must be sure that in them both we do swear the truth For if either vve doubt of the truth of the matter or have not a full purpose to performe our promise in taking such an oath vve for-swear our selves There are some that vvill make conscience of an assertory oath and vvill be sure they sweare nothing but that vvhich they know to be the truth yet for keeping their promise they make no great reckoning though they have bound themselves by oath for the performance thereof But every single promise if the thing be lawfull vvhich a man hath promised doth bind a man conscience to the performance of it and when an Oath is added there is a double bond And therefore it is said Heb. 6.17 That God widing more abundantly to shew the stablenesse of his counsell to the heirs of promise bound himself by an Oath that so saith he by two immutable things namely the promise which he had made and the Oath which he had taken we might have strong consolation So that taking of an Oath doth bind a man doubly to the performance of his promise Nay if that a man have once taken an Oath though he were induced thereunto by fraud and deceit yet the thing being lawfull he is bound to performe it And this we may see by the example of that Oath which was made to the Gibeonites Josh 9.19 for vvhen the Gibi●nites came craftily to the Jewes as though they had been men of a far country and had brought them to swear that they would not hurt them and the Iewes knew afterwards who they were and therefore were offended that they should be spared yet Ioshua and the Princes dia save their lives in regard of the oath which they had made unto them And because Saul afterwards brake this oath by destroying the Gibeonits there was a famine in the land for the space of three years and till seven of Sauls Sonnes were bang'd for this fact God was not appeased So grievous a sinne is the breach of an Oath in the sight of God And therefore whensoever we take an Oath we must alwayes have an eye to this first condition that we swear in truth Now there are two things contrary to the truth of an Oath First fraudulent and deceitfull swearing when we take an Oath with an intent to deceive them unto whom we sweare pretending one thing and intending another Such an Oath was that which Cleomenes took who having made a truce with his enemies for certaine dayes in the meane time set upon them perfideously in the night pretending that the truce was made onely for the dayes Such an Oath was that which we read of in Theodoret. A woman with child was hired by some to Father her child upon Eustathius the Bishop of Antioch The woman being examined and put to her Oath swore that Eustathius of Antioch was the Father of it whereupon the Bishop was deposed and banisht She afterwards falling into grievous sicknes confessed that she had wrongfully accused the Bishop and yet denied that she was forsworn because howsoever she pretended the Bishop yet she meant it not of him but of another in the City of the same name And such an Oath was that which was taken by Lasus vvhen he had stolne a fish out of a Fish-mongers shop as we see in Atheneus For Lasus having stoln it another received it both denyied it being both brought before the Magistrate put to their oath Athen. deipnos Lasus swore thus that he neither had it nor knew any other that stole it the other swore thus that he neither stole it nor knew any other that had it because he himself had it and Lasus stole it These are fraudulent and deceitful Oaths Secondly Contrary to swearing in truth is false swearing or perjurie when a man takes an Oath and yet knows that that which he swears is false And this hath been alwayes accounted both before God and man a most horrible odious and damnable sin Lying of it self is a heinous sinne and therefore called Prov. 12.22 an abomination to the Lord because that God who is the God of truth cannot but hate and abhorre

ignorant of Gods will his vvill is sufficiently revealed in his vvord but we cannot discerne it to be his word till God by his spirit do inlighten our understanding And therefore St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 2. vve have received the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.13 that we might know the things that are given us of God and presently after in the same Chapter but the natural man saith he perceives not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Now least we should imagine that because we are assured of the truth of Gods vvord onely by the testimony of Gods spirit that therefore till his spirit do work faith in our hearts the testimony of the Church and the hearing of the word is but va●n and needless we are to understand that Gods spirit doth ordinarily beget faith in the godly by these outward meanes For first the Testimony of the Church concerning the vvord invites us to come with the rest to hear it and while we are diligent and attentive in hearing it Gods spirit doth ordinarily beget faith in our hearts whereby we believe it and when faith hath once taken root in our hearts then we are so fully resolved of the truth of the Scriptures that all those arguments whereof before we made but light account are now like infallible demonstrations unto us For then we see plainly how necessary it was that God should reveal his vvill unto us and that if he have not revealed it in the Scripture he hath revealed it no where But that it is his will which he hath revealed in his vvord these Reasons will confirm us First In that the majesty of Gods spirit doth appear in every part of the Scripture wherein there is nothing that savours of humane wisdom but every thing therein is heavenly and divine for if we consider the matter thereof it far exceeds all humane invention For who could tell us of the Creation of the vvorld and the fall of Angels of the corruption of the whole nature of man through the transgression and disobedience of our first Parents of the redemption of the vvorld by the coming of the Messias of the rewards of the faithfull in the life to come and the punishment of sinners These things and many other which the Scripture reveals do so far go beyond the capacity of man that had not God revealed them in his word they could never have been known Secondly If we consider who penned the Scripture we shall find them for the most part to be simple men and therefore of themselves not capable of those heavenly mysteries which they have revealed in their vvritings Hos 11.1 Zach. 11.12.13 Psal 22.16.18 They were not learned and yet they foresaw things to come as if they were present and foretold many things which many hundred years after did come to passe They were not eloquent and yet more powerfull in moving the affections then Tullie Demosthenes and all the Rhetoricians in the vvorld besides They lived not together but in divers ages and several places and yet they agree so perfectly without the least contradiction as if they had had but one mind among them In a word Deut. 32.51 Jonah 1.3.6 Jonah 4.9 they were not as other men given over to sin but lived more uprightly then the most in their times and yet they have registred their own sins and infirmities to remain as it were upon the file unto all Posterities which had they been led by humane wisdom they would never have done All which shewes that howsoever the Scriptures were written here by men yet they were indicted by God in Heaven Thirdly If we consider the perfection of the Law which is called the Decalogue we shall see that none but God could be the Authour of it For there is not any good either outward or inward which we are bound to perform to God or man but it is there commanded nor any evil from which we are to abstain but it is there prohibited all which to be comprized in so few words farre exceeds the invention of men or Angels Mens Lawes howsoever they fill many large Volums yet they are still imperfect and daily want something to be added unto them which when they were made was not thought upon Sometimes again they must have something detracted that being thought convenient for the time when the Law was made which afterwards is found to be inconvenient in regard that mens conditions do so often change So that as it is in the fable when the Moon upon a time begged a new Coat of her mother her Mother replied that it was impossible to make her a Coat which would be fit for her by reason that her shape did so often alter as being now in the full now in the wane one while in one form and strait in another So it is impossible for men or Angels to make Lawes which without adding or detracting should serve for all persons and all ages because their manners and conditions do so often change But this Law which we find recorded in the Scripture is so absolute and perfect that it serves for all persons in all places and all ages and yet needes nothing to be added or detracted All other Lawes extend no further then to mens sayings or doings their words and their actions and take hold of them onely if they be not answerable to the Law but for the thoughts of mens hearts they do not inflict any penalty upon them but do leave them free The Civilians say Cogitationis paenam in foro nostro nemo luat let no man be punisht in our Court for a thought But this Law doth search into the secrets of the heart not only restraining our actual sins but our sinfull thoughts even our very first motions and inclinations to sin though we do not yield our consent thereunto to put the same in execution Rom. 7.7 St. Paul saith Rom. 7. that he had not known concupiscence to be a sinne if the Law had not said Thou shalt not covet For like as the Sunshine doth make us to see the least atomes or moaths which if it were not for the bright light of the Sunne we could not discerne So this bright light of the Law discovers the least and most secret sins which without this Law we could not have known All other Lawes because they cannot judge of the heart do require no more then outward obedience and judge well of him that lives according to the Law for his outward Carriage But this Law which as the Apostle saith Heb. 4. is a discerner of the thoughts and intents Heb. 4 1● requires both outward and inward obedience and judgeth not him to be a good man who frames himself outwardly to the observing of the Law but not inwardly For as a man is not to be counted well and in good health though his hands and feete and