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	scripture_n	word_n	4,156	5	4.0594	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61837	Balm in Gilead, or, A spur to repentance as it was lately delivered in a sermon by James Strong ...	Strong, James, 1618 or 19-1694.	1676 (1676)	Wing S5989_VARIANT; ESTC R34626	15,886	50

how ingenious are distressed Consciences to wrangle with God by framing objections against their own comforts when we ought rather to wrestle with him to put the promises in suit And this is the case sometimes even of good men even that very David himself that now was ready to catch at any thing that might ease his burdened Soul yet at another time acknowledged that his soul refused comfort Psal 77. 2. O 't is sad when the comforter comes and knocks at our door and we refuse to open but oftentimes send him away grieved when he would make us glad This is to flye from our own mercy while with Rachel we refuse to be comforted But this is but the distemper of believers Use. 2. Next then here 's an argument of comfort to thousands of Gods dear Servants who yet walk in darkness and see no light Lo this small crevise lets in light enough to make thee see thy own grace if thou find thy heart ready to seize on the promise to embrace Christ Jesus to catch hold of any offer of mercy that is made in the Gospel If thou art as glad of one suitable promise as he that findeth great spoyls be sure flesh and blood never revealed this to thee As we know there 's life where there 's motion even so by the activity and motion of the believing-Soul toward God and Christ we may discover a work of grace and conclude that God is in us of a truth Use. 3. Learn we next our duty he 's a believer indeed whose Faith proves it self by its Operation Faith lives upon God and inclines always toward him as the Load-stone toward the North-pole O let us be always flocking to Christ even as Eagles to the Carkase shall there be such Wells of Salvation opened and we not draw water of life from them Shall God throw down such lines of love from Heaven to draw poor sinking Souls out of the Sea of sin and misery and we refuse to catch hold of them Or that golden Scepter of peace be held out and none come and touch it Ah how often doth God invite us to take hold of his Arm Isa. 27. 5 and to take hold of his Covenant Isa. 56. 4. O let us clasp him with Simeon in the Arms of our Faith and resolve as Jacob not to let him go until he bless us If God had left us no other advantages yet remember his Name his name is Jehovah Isa. 42. 8 I am the Lord Jehovah that is my name and my glory will I not give unto another Even by this name of Gods he stands bound to make good all his gracious promises to his people O le ts take hold of Gods Arm and of his strength prayer is nothing but a spiritual wrestling with God and we should know though God seem to put us off yet he is willing to yield to us Gods name is but his nature let us plead it to the utmost tell him that he is the Lord strong merciful and gracious pardoning iniquities c. Exod. 34. 6. Doct. 3. That the pardoning of sin tends exceedingly to the Glory of Gods name In this the Mercy and Goodness of God shine forth to the utmost and he convinceth the world that he doth not delight in the Ruin Death and Slaughters of his people but rather in their prosperity If any question this truth I would refer him to that pregnant Scripture Exod. 33. 18 19. When Moses that eminent Servant of the Lord made that Prayer to him That he would shew him his Glory He received a grant of his Prayer in these words I will make my goodness to pass before thee but what 's that Why my name shall be told thee by which I glory to be known and then in the next Chapter when the Divine glory passed by this Proclamation was made v. 5 6 The Lord the Lord strong merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth And 't is added v. 7 Reserving mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin These are the things wherein God delighteth Jer. 9. 24. These we may call the back-parts of God so much of him as may be known to his creatures and thus to know him is life eternal Reas. 1. 'T is an argument of infinite goodness we have heard God makes his goodness now the matter of his Glory 'T was the Honour of Caesar that he never forgot any thing but injuries 't is infinitely more for the Honour of God that he forgiveth and forgetteth nothing but the sins of his people Reas. 2. As God by pardoning sin glorifies himself so he procures Glory from his pardoned people 'T is the proper effect of mercy to bring in a return of Glory read Isa. the 55 and 7. v. When the Lord promiseth pardon of sin to the penitent Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous his own imaginations and return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he is ready to forgive and then 't is added v. 13 This shall be to the Lord for a name This name Gods people do most joyfully give him in Micha 7. 18 Who is a God like unto thee c. Reas. 3. That 's the last reason This act of mercy viz. Pardoning sin exalts God above all Idols in the world that must needs be a glorious Act which none in the world can do but God Tu multuantur quidem Gentes circa Divos suos nova quotidie sacra faciunt nunquam tamen conscientiae terroribus liberantur Thus Gualter excellently on that last cited Sripture The heathens make much ado about their Idol-gods and offer new sacrifices to them daily but alas all those bloody offerings never bring the least ease to their guilty Consciences This is Gods Perogative-Royal he is a Sin-forgiving God and in this there is none like him Their Rock is not as our Rock themselves being Judges Use 1. Hence first we see how unlike they are to God who instead of pardoning the wrongs done them by others do mind and meditate nothing but revenge and although vengeance be one of Gods Prerogatives yet hereby dare they usurp upon God and do wrong to him that they may revenge their own dreadful case when men live as if the Scripture were no better than waste Paper Let me ask the Lamech's of the world whether they never read Mat. 5. 44 45 Love your enemies bless them that curse you c. that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven Oh remember that as 't is the glory of God so 't is the glory of a man too to pass by a transgression Prov. 19. 11. Aelian reports of Augustus that he did but laugh at the Satyr and Buffoonries which they had published against him And Socrates when followed home to his House by one that railed at him all day offered the railer a Lanthorn to light him home that he might not stumble in

the hands of an Omnipotent Physician Use 1. The first use is of Caution Corruption is apt to abuse the sweetest Mercies We should take heed that we venture not presumptuouslly to commit great sins because we hear that the greatness of sin should be an argument to make us seek for pardon this is to turn the grace of God into wantonness Jude 4. 'T is sad when the goodness of God should lead us to repent that corruption should abuse it as an occasion to commit sin That Scripture may serve as a flaming sword to keep hardened Sinners from this presumption Deut. 29. 20 If any one hear the words of this curse shall bless himself in heart and say I shall have peace though I walk according to the stubbornness of my own heart c. The Lord will not be merciful unto that man but the wrath of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against him c. Such blessed truths should not be used as spurs to provoke us to sin but as a bridle to curb corruption and to restrain us from sin Use 2. In the next place it informs us That they are out of the way that seek to get pardon by lessening and extenuating their sin loth to speak the one half of their guilt as Jonathan I did but take a little honey This is not the guise of the godly David acknowledges his sin a great sin and thence pleads for mercy In Exod. 32. 31 Moses interceded for the people after they had made the golden Calf and he makes report of it to God in the fullest aggravation thereof This people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold He doth not only confess that they had sinned but that they had sinned greatly and again they did not only do that that was sinful but they had sinned a sin that 's more And above all this they had sinned a great sin in making them golden gods Oh what divine Rhetorick will grace teach a believing Soul not only in abasing it self for sin but also in exalting Divine Mercy 3. We may learn hence the Admirable Vertue and Efficacy of Faith that re●●rts the arguments of reason drawing grounds of hope from those very suppositions which carnal reason would use as arguments to despair Take one instance for many in the Canaanitish Woman Mat. 15. 27 when Christ seemed to put her off by calling her dog yet by Faith she picks an argument of speeding out of her very repulse truth Lord yet the dogs eat of the crumbs c. Use 4. Lift up then your drooping heads ye doubting and despondent Souls whose sins have out-grown your hopes and you are ready to conclude fearful things to your selves saying Verily there is no hope Could we pry into the bosoms of distressed Christians 't is not to be questioned but we should find thousands that are strangers unto peace from a woful mistake of Divine mercy Deal with the one half of the doubting Souls in the world they 'l tell you that that which discourages them to go to God is the greatness of their sin But lo here lyes the art of a Christian to go to God with boldness and tell him Lord the greater are my sins the greater will thy glory be when thou hast pardoned them This art holy David had learnt who for abundance of sin cryes out not for mercy but for abundance of mercy Psal. 51. 1. And for your encouragement let me add but a few Considerations 1. Consider that God in the Salvation of Sinners had a design to magnifie the riches of his mercy and to work it in such a way that the creature might have no cause of glorying in himself Ephes. 2. 7 That he might shew in the ages to come the exceeding riches of his grace c. Now know that Gods mercy is not only above all his works but above ours too One depth swallows up another if we sin to our utmost he saves to his utmost And where sin abounds grace much more abounds And thus God so over-rules even sin it self that he keeps it under the reach of his pardoning mercy 2. God doth not pardon sin unwillingly no 't is a very pleasing work to him though he be slow to vengeance yet he is ready to mercy Mic. 7. 18 He retaineth not wrath for ever because mercy pleaseth him Whatsoever thou art Sinner be sure thou wert never so delighted to commit sin as God delights to pardon it 3. 'T was Christs intention in making himself an offering for sin to save the chief of Sinners he suffered not only for small Sinners but for the greatest 1 Tim. 1. 15 This is a faithful saying c. that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief Now can we think that Christ Jesus can be defeated of his end Shall Christ dye of purpose to save the greatest Sinners and shall he not obtain it Yea sure he shall see the fruit of the travel of his soul and he shall be satisfied Isa. 53. 11. 4. Consider This suits with the expressions whereby God describes his pardoning of sin he promiseth to blot out our sins Isa. 43 25. Now when the pen is going it will as soon cross a great debt as a small one Besides the more Gods holiness hates sin the more inclined he is to cross and cancel it And to cast our sins unto the bottom of the Sea that covers the greatest rocks c. Mic. 7. 19. 5. Consider what Sinners have been pardoned What think you of Aarons idolatry Lots incest Manasses witchcraft and idolatry Peters denying and forswearing his Master Pauls Persecution and Blasphemy But beyond all what think you of that sin of Adam whom yet God hath set forth as a Monument of his Mercy who though he were advanced above all the creatures and taken into so near communion with God having perfect ability given him to persist in his created holiness yet wilfully rebelled against his Maker and in some sense is guilty of all the sins of his Posterity yet all these saved and pardoned by believing in Christ who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 11. 8. Oh then keep the eye of your Faith on the promises of the Gospel in the darkest day of adversity Hear what God says Isa. 1. 18 Though your sins be as scarlet I will make them as snow Scarlet in the Hebrew signifies twice because 't is twice died though we are died twice thrice or a hundred times in sin though we be never so deep-grained by our recidinations and back slidings yet now there is Balm in Galead God pardons not only seven times but seventy times seven Jer. 8. 22. Mat. 18. 22. Beware of this gulf of despair 't is a high point of Atheism to distruct mercy one well observes that Judas in betraying Christ was an occasion of his death as man but in despairing of mercy he did what in him lay to take away his