Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	require_v	spirit_n	worship_v	1,990	5	8.9686	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50489	The good of early obedience, or, The advantage of bearing the yoke of Christ betimes discovered in part, in two anniversary sermons, one whereof was preached on May-day, 1681, and the other on the same day in the year 1682, and afterwards inlarged, and now published for common benefit / by Matthew Mead.	Mead, Matthew, 1630?-1699.	1683 (1683)	Wing M1555; ESTC R19143	252,739	482

unless it be bene The manner of doing what we do is as much as the matter done Most men miscarry herein they take up in the bare performance of a duty rest in the opus operatum the work done Like the blind Papists who bead out their Prayers and serve God by tale Prov. 4.23 The heart must be watched in every duty for it is the frame of the Spirit that makes up obedience And therefore the Precept doth not only prescribe the Quid but the Quomoch It doth not direct the matter only but the manner too Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 valde vehementer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they should be kept exceedingly Sept. Psal 119.4 Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully Jer. 48.10 He may do the work of the Lord and yet be cursed for not observing the manner as well as the matter b Some preach Christ out of envy Phil. 1.15 It is not hearing the Word unless we take heed how we hear Luke 8.18 It is not prayer if it be not fervent prayer c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.16 If prayer be not right it is Thuribulum sine prunis a Censer without fire Giving is not Charity unless there be a drawing out the soul to the hungry 1 Cor. 11.20 Isai 58.10 Eating and drinking at the Lords Table is not eating the Lords Supper v. 27. unless it be done worthily that is by a believing soul in a believing frame Love to God is not love unless it be with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might Deut. 6.5 Whatever duty we do it is not serving God Heb. 11.28 unless we are fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 It is another matter to serve God than the world thinks of Slightness of service implies a degrading God in our conceptions Josh 24.19 it is a sign we have cheap thoughts of him when every thing serves the turn 4. There must be a right end A man may lose the prize by shooting short as well as wide of the mark Shechem submits to be circumcised but not as it was a token of the Covenant of God but as a token of his desire to be in Covenant with Jacobs daughter Gen. 34.17 18 19. and so his end was to gratifie his lust Jehu destroys the house of idolatrous Ahab a good work a work to which he was anointed and called of God and yet God threatens to avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu 2 Kings 9.6 7. Hos 1.4 A strange thing that God should anoint Jehu for that work to shed the blood of the house of Ahab and bid him go and do it and declared his approbation of it Thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes nay rewarded him for doing it 2 Kings 10.30 and yet that after all this God should avenge it upon his house What should be the reason of this Because though the work was good yet his end was bad It was not zeal for the Lord of Hosts that was but in pretence his end was to get the Kingdom Plainly then a man may do what God requires and yet in the doing of it serve his own ends Now the Yoke of Christ directs our ends which is in all things that God be glorified 1 Cor. 10.31 So that in all these instances it appears to be a very extensive Yoke and so must the Christians obedience be Ye are my friends if you do whatever I command you Joh. 15.14 Fifthly And it follows from the former It is a laborious Yoke Indeed there is a blessed rest our Lord Christ hath promised to all that put on this Yoke Matt. 11.29 Take my yoke upon you and ye shall find rest to your souls that is a rest from the dominion of sin from the condemning power of the Law from the accusations and charges of Conscience But it is not a rest from labour that is the priviledge of Heaven they rest from their labours Revel 14.13 Here we labour to enter into rest Heb. 4.11 The very notion of taking up the yoke imports labour and diligence And so do all those imployments to which the Christian calling is compared in Scripture It is compared to running a race to wrestling to fighting All works that call for the utmost strength skill and industry The more strings an Instrument hath the greater art and skill is requisite to handle it well A Christian hath more to do than ever Adam in Innocency had his state is better but his work is greater Adam was to obey the Law only but the Christian is to obey both Law and Gospel First He is to keep the whole Law it is to be his Rule as much as it was Adam's though not upon the same Sanction and severe Conditions Which Command may I break upon the priviledge of interest in Christ or refuse to obey as a part of Gospel-liberty And if every Command of the Moral Law requires obedience as it doth how great is his Duty But this is not all For Secondly He owes obedience to the Gospel too For this is more peculiarly the Yoke of Christ And how many Duties go to make up Gospel-obedience There must be believing in Christ repenting of sin denying our selves renouncing the world crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts cutting off the right hand plucking out the right eye cleaving to the truths of Christ contending for the Faith praying in the Spirit watching in all things resisting temptations growing in grace worshipping God in the Spirit abounding in hope rejoycing in Christ Jesus c. O how laborious a work is it to take up the Yoke of Christ Indeed Christ says it is easie Matt. 11.30 my yoke is easie but this is in opposition to grievousness 1 John 5.3 not to diligence and industry Christ quits us of our burden but not of our duty Sixthly The Yoke of Christ is a lasting Yoke not to be worn at pleasure and then laid off I have given you statutes and judgments says Moses Deut. 4.5 as the Lord commanded me and then v. 9. Take heed lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life And Isa 59.21 My words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed from henceforth and for ever The meaning of this promise is that his people shall never want the guidance and direction of his Word and therefore they should always follow the guidance of it David begs to be taught the Statutes of God for this very reason that he may keep them to the end Psal 119.33 There is no exemption from Duty no room for intermissions in our obedience Upon those words of Solomon Eccles 3.1 Eccles 3.1 There is a time for every thing v. 2. a time to be born and a

But he charges this practice with folly says he they are not wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They never come to understand their case alas how should they the obliquity of the person is hid in the crookedness of the rule For a man to be his own rule and standard is great folly and yet nothing more common than to judge a mans self by the presumed goodness of his own heart though it is the greatest cheat and impostor in the World The Holy Ghost tells us so the heart is deceitful above all things Jerem. 17.9 You read of deceitful riches Matt. 13.22 deceitful weights Mic. 6.11 deceitful witnesses Prov. 14.25 deceitful Prophets Jerem. 23.26 deceitful tongues Psal 52.4 a deceitful Devil Revel 20.3 but the heart is deceitful above them all Satan himself could never deceive a man if his own heart did not deceive him It hath a thousand deceits It paints sin with the colour of vertue It hides from a man the evil that is real and flatters him with a good that is seeming It perswades a man he hath the good he hath not and if there be any good that the good he hath is greater than it is It presents him with common Grace for saving It makes him take education for conversion and moral virtues for Gospel Holiness It is endless to trace the heart in its several deceits and therefore for a man to measure himself by himself when the heart is so deceitful must needs be a false rule of judgment Secondly Some measure themselves by such as come short of their attainments thus did the Pharisee in Luk. 18.11 God I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers nor as this Publican and this was the false rule that deceived him Alas what is all this nature may be refined and yet be but nature and when all is done it giveth one man no more advantage of another than tame Beasts have of wild A tame Beast is as much a Beast as they that are wild We may not be so bad as the worst and yet may be worse than we think and we may be better than some and yet not be so good as we ought Thirdly Some make a judgment of their condition by the judgment of others If such as are Godly wise and discerning do approve and commend them this puts all out of doubt and makes them confident of their good condition Nothing blinds a man more to himself than the applause of others for this holds him in a pleasant dream of an imaginary excellency and puffs him up with an opinion of those virtues in himself which he is an utter stranger to Alas what is the judgment of others about the truth of my Godliness that I should value and judge my self by that How often have good men been mistaken in their opinion and judgment of others The Disciples judged Judas to have been as sincere and true to Christ as themselves and could suspect themselves as soon as him nay rather than him And therefore when Christ tells them one of you shall betray me Matt. 26.21.22 they every one cry out Lord is it I they little thought that Iscariot had been such a Judas How was Peter deceived in Simon Magus and the Apostle John in the false Disciples and never knew what they were till their Apostasy detected their Hypocrisie 1 John 2.19 Men judge by what they see and that is only what appears Now a man may be one thing in appearance and another thing in reality Our Lord Christ speaks of some that are in sheeps clothing and yet are inwardly ravening wolves The Opticks say solae superficies videntur we only see the surface of things and it is true who can see another mans inside who can tell what principle I am acted by in the worship of God or say what my aims and ends are they may be right or wrong true or false for ought any other man knows Many shall in that Day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ be condemned for Hypocrites that have passed through this World with an applause for Eminent Saints for secret sins may be retained under an open profession of holiness and men judge by the profession that is made because they see not the secret lusts that are indulged This is therefore a false rule to judge by Fourthly Some make outward reformation the 〈◊〉 to judge of their subjection to Christ by If they leave their open wickednesses their scandalous practices and live soberly in the World this is a rule by which they judge their case good Now this is a false rule to judge by For 1. Open sins may be reformed and yet heart lusts may be reserved and so the Soul is in as dangerous a condition as ever An impostume in the Bowels may as surely kill a man as the plague in the flesh Where sin is outwardly forsaken and yet secretly beloved there the Disease is not cured but struck in and so is as mortal as before It is not the refraining sin that weakens it but the withdrawing the heart from it It is a less evil to do sin and not love it than it is to love sin and not do it for the doing sin may possibly be from weakness of Grace but the love of sin is always from the strength of lust 2. A man may as to outward acts let all sin go and yet be a secret enemy to Christ for the Enmity as the Law says of treason against the King lies not in overt acts but in the depravedness and corruption of the heart and what is it for all lusts to be restrained unless the heart also be subdued to Christ A Dog tyed up from doing harm is a Dog still There may be a cessation of arms between Enemies and yet the quarrel may remain though the War cease A sinner may lay the weapon of sin out of his hand and yet the enmity against God still remain in his heart And therefore for a man to measure his Religion from an outward reformation only is to judge by a false rule Not but that an outward reformation is necessary for though a man may have a bad heart under a strict life yet to be sure he cannot have a good heart with a bad life Matt. 23.25 But this is not enough for the outside of the cup and platter may be cleansed and yet the inside remain unclean and filthy Fifthly Some make a profession of Religion the measure of their subjection to Christ they reckon a cleaving to his worship and ordinances to be a taking up of his Yoke Indeed it is required that all that believe in Christ should make a profession of him it is a part of the homage we owe to Christ to stick to his worship and ordinances to hold fast the faith and not deny his name But yet for any man to judge of the truth of his subjection to Christ by making an