Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	lord_n	mercy_n	psal_n	4,793	5	8.0417	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30259	A sermon preached to the Honourable House of Commons assembled in Parliament at their pvbliqve fast, Novem. 17, 1640 by Cornelius Burges.	Burges, Cornelius, 1589?-1665.; Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1641 (1641)	Wing B5683; ESTC R19994	56,507	64

now in any deliverance bestowed it would be doubled if upon the deliverance received we would thus be ioyned to him Nor is this a notion or conceit onely but a reall trueth For marke what He saith to his people Hos 2. vers 19 20. I will marry thee unto me for ever I will betroath the unto me in righteousnesse and in Iudgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies I will even marry thee unto me in faithfullnesse and thou shalt know the Lord. He that enters into Covenant with God is betroathed yea even married to him And how married even to the partaking of all his goods of all he hath yea of himselfe and of all that he is As the wife may say Gen. 31.43 Vbi tu Caius ego Caia and as Laban sometimes of Iacobs wives children and cattell These daughters are my daughters and these children are my children and these cattell are my cattell and all that thou seest are mine So a man once married to the Lord by Covenant may without arrogancy say this righteousnesse is my righteousnesse this iudgement is my judgement this loving kindnesse these mercies this faithfullnesse which I see in thee and all that thou hast is mine for my comfort supply support direction salvation and what not And take notice of that phrase Thou shalt know the Lord. Did they not know him before Yes but never in such a manner with such a Knowledge at least in such a measure They shall now know him in such neere familiar sweet and ineffable expressions of his deerest deepest choycest conjugal love as they never tasted nor could taste of before We know how it is with a wife married to a loving husband They loved one another before marriage and many expressions of a speciall love passed betweene them but they never enjoyed one another fully till the marriage was solemnized Then there is not only a more intimate manifestation of fervent intire loyall chaste love but a further enlarging and stretching out of mutuall affections to each other than they could possibly have beleeved they should ever have reached unto till now experience assure them of it And even thus it is between us and God Is he good in deliverances have we tasted of his love already Oh how great would his goodnesse be how full of grace mercy bountie and how would he communicate even whole rivers of all these to that Soule that would once come up to him and close with him in an everlasting Covenant All the wayes of the Lord are mercy and trueth unto such as make and keep Covenant with him Psal 25.19 3. Consider that what ever worke God calls You to 3. No buckling to the worke God calls us unto without a Covenant Yee will never buckle thoroughly to it till you have entered into Covenant with him An apprentise boy when he goes to a Master upon tryall onely his minde is now on then off againe sometimes he could like the trade by and by his minde hangs after his Mother at home or after some other course of life and he never sets close to his businesse till he be bound When once the Indentures be sealed and he enrolled he knowes there is now no more time to deliberate but he must fall to his businesse or else take what happens for his idlenesse and negligence So is it with a wife if she be but onely promised or betroathed to a man she may come to his house and cast an eye up and downe but it is rather to observe than to act she may perhaps cast out a word now and then somewhat freely also but she never sets her selfe to guide the house or to doe any thing to purpose till she be married then she careth for the things of the world that is with all possible diligence looking to 1 Cor. 7.34 and managing of the businesse of the family committed to her how she may please her husband all her thoughts care diligence run this way she makes it her busines that she must sticke unto and daily manage as a part of the marriage Covenant And thus also it will be with you You have much worke under your hands and are like to have more and I hope you desire to doe all in truth of heart for God and not for ends of your owne but let me tell you this will never be done througly till once you be marryed to him by solemne Covenant Then will you care indeed for the things of the Lord how you may please the Lord in every cause in every Answer to any Petition and in every Vote of any Bill or sentence You would then thinke when you come to manage debate vote any Question I am the Lords not mine own not my friends will this I doe stand with my Covenant will it please God will it be profitable for the State is it agreeable to Iustice and equitie Then on with it no man shall divert or take me off But till then one will intreate for his friend another for his one will make you one way another will draw you another way and they both are your friends and you know not how to deny either and thus are you even torne in peeces betweene them in so much as you sometimes resolve to be absent or to sit still and say nothing or to gratifie him that hath most power with You be the cause what it will But when once the Covenant is sealed all this will be at an end You will quickly stop your eares against all perswasions that may hinder Iustice and Reformation and when this is knowne men will soone forbeare also to trouble You with such solicitations 4. Wicked men Covenant with Hell Isay 28. Againe fourthly Wicked men sticke not at a Covenant with death and hell it selfe so they may but satisfie their Lusts though they know the end thereof will be damnation Oh then shall not we much more make a Covenant with our God to doe his will which will be beneficiall and comfortable both here and hereafter and procure a full torrent of his mercies bountie grace and eternall life to flow in upon us 5. Consider that the Devell himselfe will have a Covenant from all his vassals 5. The Devill himselfe will do no great matters for his vassals without a Covenant that expect any extraordinary matters from him else he will not be engaged to be at their Command There is not a Witch that hath the Devill at her beck but she must seale a Covenant to him sometimes with her bloud sometimes by other rites and devices and perhaps he must sucke her too as in those hellish bargaines you know they use and then he is for her during the time agreed upon And shall we think God will be so cheape as to be with reverence be it spoken at our Command to help direct assist deliver and save us who will not doe so much for him as Witches and Sorcerers will doe for the Devill

death of that Iosiah it soone prov'd abortive The Princesse that came after quickly turn'd the Tide before it was halfe high water and she set all the Gates wide open again both for Pope and Popery to reenter with triumph and to drink drunk of the bloud of our Ancestors till God discharged her and released his people from her crueltie So that when Queene Elizabeth that glorious Deborah mounted the Throne although her heart was upright and loathed the Idolatry of the former Reigne yet found she worke enough to restore any thing at all and to make any beginnings of a Reformation She soone felt when she would have throughly pluckt up Popery both root and branch superfluous Ceremonies and all remaining raggs of superstition as well as grosse Idolatry that she had to do with an Hydra having such a strong partie of stout Popelings to grapple with at home and such potent and dangerous abetters of them to cope withall abroad I need not name them I might adde hereunto some difficulties arising from the interests and engagements of not a few of those though good and holy men that underwent voluntary exile in the heat of the Marian persecution who while they were abroad had a large share in the troubles at Franckford too eagerly perhaps pursuing the English Formes of Worship and Discipline and so when upon their returne they were advanced to places of Dignitie and Government in this Church they were the more apt and forward to maintaine and hold up that Cause wherein they had so farre appeared and for which some of them with more heat than Charitie had so openly declared themselves in forrein parts And so what by one impediment and what by another we see it hath been a long time ere our Reformation can be thoroughly polished and perfected as were to be wished and desired for there is nothing so perfect here but is capable of more perfection Nay so farre are we become now from going forward with the work notwithstanding the pietie care of our Princes since the last Restitution of Religion in this Kingdome that as it was in Iosiahs time though his owne heart were for God yet there was a packe of rottten men both Priests and People very great pretenders to Devotion but indeed mad upon Images and Idols we begin to fall againe and not onely to coast anew upon the brinks of Babylon from whence we were happily delivered but even to launch out into her deepest Lakes of superstition and Idolatry under pretence of some extraordinary pietie of the times and of some good worke in hand What is the reason of all this but that not so much as once since the first beginning of Reformation of Religion in this Island we never for ought I know entred into such a solemne publique universall Covenant to be the Lords as he requireth for those beginnings already given us but have sate loose from God and so have not joyned together as one man zealously to propugne his trueth and Ordinances and to stand by him and his Cause as becomes the people of God in all just and warrantable wayes against all opposers and gainsayers So long as we please our selves in this liberty of our holding off from a Covenant with God we may feed our selves with vaine hopes of redresse of things amisse but shall speed no better than those libertines back-sliders in Ier. 14. who lookt for great matters from God but came short of all and then seemed to wonder at the reason For thus they bespeake him ver 8. O the hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in time of trouble why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the Land and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry onely for a night Why shouldst thou be as a man astonied as a mightie man that cannot save yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name See here how they are put to it They acknowledge his Power Goodnesse Presence yet they are not saved He seemes to be like Sampson with his Locks cut off as if he were not able to save or would not do it and this they wonder and stand amazed at as a thing incredible and impossible But God makes them a short and sharp answer which may also serve us ver 10. Thus saith the Lord have they loved to wander they have not refrained their feet therefore the Lord doth not accept them If God be as a wayfaring man sometimes with a people more often gone from them sometimes blessing sometimes crossing them and suffering them to fall under heavy pressures never keeps an even and setled station or course of proceeding with them it is but that he hath learnt from themselves as I may so speake they will be their owne men they will not be tyed to him so strictly they will have some libertie for their lusts for the world for the devill for any thing and loe here is the fruit of it God will not be bound to nor walke with them he will not draw out that strength that goodnesse that compassion which might deliver them from the evils they howle under He will neither heare them nor any body else for them not Ieremy himselfe vers 11. not Noah Daniel and Iob Ezek. 14. Nothing therefore but a more solemne and strict Covenant with God will put us into a posture and condition capable of perfect redresse of our grievances how faire so ever either now 3. Vse Exhortation or hereafter we may seeme to be for it This is the second use Thirdly suffer I beseech you a few words of exhortation The returning Iewes you see call upon all their Nation to enter into Covenant Give me leave then to call upon You the Representative Body of this whole Kingdome who stand here before the Lord this day to humble your soules and let me also prevaile with you all to ioyne your selues even this day to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant that shall not be forgotten Make this day a day indeed a day of Covenanting with God and God shall Covenant with you and make it the beginning of more happinesse than ever you yet enjoyed Beloved mistake me not my meaning extends not to engage you in any Civill Covenant and Bond for defence of your Municipall Lawes and Liberties No doubt you will be able to find meanes enow by the blessing of God to setle those things in a legall way especially if you be carefull to Covenant with God Much lesse is it my purpose to draw you into that late Ecclesiasticall Oath and Covenant enjoyned by the late Canon which in my apprehension is little lesse than a Combination and Conspiracy against both King and State My businesse is meerely to perswade you into a Religious Covenant with God as himselfe hath prescribed and commanded and his people in the best times of Reformation have readily admitted namely every man to stirre up himselfe and to lift up