Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	peace_n	spirit_n	unity_n	1,812	5	8.9331	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45545	The choicest fruit of peace gathered from the tree of life presented to the Right Honourable the House of Peers, in a sermon preached before them at the Abbey church of Westminster, on April 30, 1660, being the day of their solemn humiliation / by Nath. Hardy ...	Hardy, Nathaniel, 1618-1670.	1660 (1660)	Wing H713; ESTC R17334	18,790	38

under his shadow they violently hewed down the Tree cutting off the head upon pretence of saving the body The precious stones of Zion our Nobles comparable to fine gold were esteemed as earthen pitchers rejected as uselesse our Palaces were swallowed up and our strong holds destroyed the Gates of our City as it were sunk into the ground and our bars broken the Places of our Religious Assemblies shut up and our solemn Feasts forgotten The Princes were polluted the Priests despised and the people sighed under heavy burthens In few words The Crown is fallen from our head the joy of our hearts ceased we are made Orphans and Fatherlesse our necks under a sore persecution yea servants ruled over us and there was none to deliver us out of their hands But he who is the God in the Mount hath looked upon our afflictions and heard our cry put an hook in the nostrils of those wilde Phanaticks who did ride over our heads and trampled us under their feet he hath raised up an ever to be renowned Zerubbabel before whom the Mountains were made plain by whose prudent as well as valiant conduct through Gods wonderfull mercy mighty Forces were conquered without a Fight and scattered without a Rout Our eyes now behold instead of those brambles and thorns which thought themselves firmly rooted a Garden of choice flowers of the Gentry transplanted as it were from all parts of the Countrey into the House of Commons Our goodly Cedars are now planted again in their own House which was for so many years empty unlesse when those Mushromes crept up in it and we hope ere long to see the Stately Oak Finally we are come out of the Babylon of confusion and returning not as some are pleased to phrase it to the Onyons and Garlick of Egypt but to the honey and milk of Canaan and that as the Jews then did without the effusion of bloud And now my Noble Lords what is our earnest hope and expectation but that the great God will honour you to be the Instruments ef compleating that deliverance which he hath been pleased as it were to create for us In order to which though it is far from me to undertake to give your Honours direction yet give me leave to acquaint you what is looked upon by all good men as that which must make us happy and accordingly what is our petition and we doubt not but will be your Lordships endeavour namely the blessing of the Text Peace Peace Peace in the State and peace in the Church I mention the State first since though the peace of the Church be first in order of dignity yet if I may humbly offer my thoughts the peace of the State would be first endeavoured in order of Time since though the State cannot flourish unlesse the Church be setled yet the Church cannot be so well setled as when the State is composed It is very observable what a difference there was between the Altar which Solomon made in a peaceable time and that which Moses made when the people were in an unsetled condition in the wildernesse The Altar which Moses made was but five cubits long five cubits broad and three cubits high but the Altar which Solomon made was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits broad and ten cubits high The work of the Temple went on but slowly when the builders of it were forced to have a sword in one hand as well as a trowell in the other but when once the State is duely setled upon its right basis in quietnesse both hands will be at liberty to build the Temple Peace then would be first sought for in reference to the State by an harmonious Union What other is the State but a politicall body and what other peace can be desirable in a body than an union of the head with the members and the members one with another The State is as a Building whereof the two Houses of Parliament are as it were the two wals to support and defend it but that which must unite and consequently strengthen these two wals is the Corner-stone being set in its proper place and by this means there will be to use the language of my Text Peace to him that is afar off as well as to him that is near yea he who hath been so long too long afar off will become near When this work is once done that which would be earnestly contended for is the peace of the Church that the breaches which scisme hath made so wide may be closed up the hedge which faction hath pulled down may be reared up and we may once again be a garden enclosed and keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Nor is only Peace to be desired in both but to use the duplication in the Text Peace Peace that is a firm lasting peace in both and to this end Peace and truth according to the Prophet Zacharies counsell Love the truth and peace that truth I mean which was once delivered to the Saints which is contained in the holy Scriptures and is collected in the Articles of the Church of England Peace and righteousnesse for so this Prophet assureth us the work of righteousnesse shall be peace Righteousnesse I say which giveth to every one those rights which are due to him by the laws of God and of the Realm and though a full reparation of all injuries is not to be expected yet a restitution of every man to his just right ought to be endeavoured Peace and love which is called by the Apostle the bond of perfection because of peace that love especially which covereth a multitude of offences forgetteth and forgiveth injuries purgeth all malice rancour and revenge out of the mindes of men in which respect I could heartily wish for a Temple like that which was built at Rome Jovi positorio wherein all men of all parties might lay down all heart-burning and animosity against one another for any former wrongs Peace and government for what peace where there is no government what government either in Church or State more likely to establish a firm peace then that under which we did so gloriously flourish for so many years enjoying both peace and plenty Peace and order without which there can be no government order in the State by a fit subordination of the Subjects Liberty to the Soveraigns authority order in the Church by a sweet attemperation of paternall presidency with fraternall presbytery This is that peace which we trust God will now by you ordain for us and oh that all of us would prepare our selves for it by unfained repentance and better obedience our wickednesse hath obstructed our peace too long already let us speedily resolutely joyntly cast it away that it may be no longer a Remora to retard our deliverance And for the more happy accomplishment of this great blessing let us remember that it must be the fruit of our lips

continuation yet more desirable but the restauration is most acceptable Such was this peace a dismission Babylon wherein they had been miserable captives a return to Judea whence they had been dolefull exiles and such a peace was a double peace not only because it is the restoring of a former peace but it is also highly commended by the misery of that bondage which had for many years deprived them of it Mercies are most valued after we have known what it is to want them Health is doubly amiable after a desperate sicknesse a calm is never more lovely then after a violent storm the Suns golden beams are most glorious after a dark night and peace is doubly beautifull after a ruinous war Look as summum infertunium fuisse fortunatum affliction after a prosperous estate is more bitter so prosperity after an afflicted estate is the sweeter 2. There is a peace which is only as a skinning the sore which afterwards breaketh forth the more virulently and there is a peace which is an healing the wounds a firm peace to intimate which perhaps the word is doubled Those words the fruit of the lips are read by some the fruit of the banks the banks being as it were the lips of the river and then it meaneth the fruit of the tree which groweth by the river side concerning which the Psalmist saith its leaf shall not fade a fit embleme of a lasting peace This is that peace for which the Church prayeth when she saith Lord thou wilt ordain or as the Hebrew word most properly signifieth stablish peace for us such a peace as is not built on the sand but the rock This the Psalmist was confident of when he saith the Lord will bless his people with peace that is he will give such a peace as shall be a blessing a peace which is not a blazing comet but a fixed star 3. Peace though it be but one word and that a monasyllable is a Volume of mercies containing whatsoever conduceth to the welfare of a person or people and probably for this reason there is a duplication of the word to note a multiplication of blessings When Amasiah wished to David Peace Peace be to thee what did he thereby intimate but all kinde of prosperity and here Sanctius glosseth this peace peace to mean cumulatissimam pacem such a peace as bringeth with it an heap of blessings We cannot have a better Expositor of Gods Word then himself where he saith I will bring it health and cure I will reveal abundance of peace and truth To this purpose is that metaphor which we finde used by this Prophet where he brings in God saying Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commands then had thy peace been as a River And again I will extend peace to her like a River by which at once is noted a permanency of peace with an affluence of all sorts of blessings and if you shall ask how far this River of peace extends it self you have an answer in the Universality of the Subject to him that is afar off and to him that is near And yet before I discusse the Universality it will not be amisse to take notice of the propriety which though it be not expressed in the Text may be supplied from the Context and other parallell Scriptures If you look downwards upon that which followeth you finde the wicked expresly excluded from having any interest in this peace who either should not at all return to their own Countrey or if they did little benefit or comfort should accrue to them by it so that the him in the Text is him that is godly and upright It is very observable that antithesis which our Prophet maketh between the righteous and the wicked in Jerusalem when it was besieged by Sennacherib On the one hand the sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulnesse hath surprised the hypocrite where you see the seeming Saint is in as bad a condition as the open sinner and no wonder since the one is no lesse wicked then the other nay malus ubi se simulat lunc est pessimus the evil man is then worst when he would appear to be best On the other hand He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly c. he shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munition of rocks there is safety bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure there is plenty and as the crown of his rejoycing it is added Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty but still these blessings are limited to the righteous and upright-hearted and surely this was no lesse verified of them when captives in Babylon then when besieged in Jerusalem 2. If you look upward on the close of the former verse you finde mention of mourners and a little higher of the broken and contrite spirit so that the him in the Text is the him that was a mourner by the Rivers of Babylon for Zions miseries and for his own and others iniquities The Psalmist speaking of this very mercy the turning again of the captivity of Zion saith they that sow in tears shall reap in joy which relateth not only to their miserable condition but penitent disposition It is the sorrow of contrition that fits us for the joy of restoration since God loveth to pour the oyl of his mercy into broken vessels 3. If you cast your eyes upon the promise of God by Moses to his people of having compassion on them and gathering them from the Nations whither he had scattered them you will finde the condition premised to be returning to the Lord and obeying his voice By sin we forsake God by repentance we return to him by committing sin we transgresse his Law by doing righteousnesse we obey his voice no way to settle any Nation but by unfained repentance and universall obedience Having given you this brief account of that which is to be supplyed in reference to the propriety be pleased now to look upon that which is expressed the Universality of the Subject him that is afar off and him that is near Indeed the number here used is singular but it is not a person only but the body of the people which is intended and that as well those afar off as near For the clearer understanding whereof you must know that when the Jews were conquered by the Babylonians there were some in patriâ relinquendi to be left in the Countrey and those were the poor of the Land to be Vine-dressers and Husbandmen there were others in captivitatem abducendi to be carried away captive to a strange land and among those some were upon the borders of Judea and so near others afar off in remoter Countreys and whereas they who were afar off might conceive themselves under an incapacity by reason of the distance to return into their own Countrey the promise is extended to him that is afar off as well as