Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	scripture_n	speak_v	word_n	9,140	5	4.5911	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A18567	The exaltation of the kingdome and priesthood of Christ In certaine sermons vpon the 110. Psalme: preached in the Cathedrall Church and city of Worcester, in the time of Christmasse: anno Domini: 1596. By Rob. Abbot, doctor of Diuinitie, sometime felow of Baliol Colledge in Oxford.	Abbot, Robert, 1560-1618.	1601 (1601)	STC 51; ESTC S115231	83,503	102

we may not f Rom. 10.14 call vpon him in whom we do not beleeue but his meaning for all that is that we shall call vpon saints though we may not beleeue in them The word of Christ is that as there is but one God so there is but g 1. Tim. 2.5 one mediatour betwixt God and man but his meaning for all that must be that all the saints of heauen must be our mediatours vnto God The worde of Christ is that we shall not h Exod. 20.4 make a grauen image to fall downe to it or to worship it but we must thinke that he meant that we should make vs grauen images to fall downe before them to worship them to offer and pray vnto them What impudent men are these and how hard is their forehead that will goe about to perswade vs that Christ hath a sense and meaning so directly contrary to that that he speaketh And yet they forsooth must be taken for the iudges of the scriptures and whatsoeuer Christ saith we must beleeue nothing but according to that meaning that they will make of it because as one of them saith if a man haue the interpretation of the church of Rome he hath the true sense of scripture although he cannot see how it agreeth with the words Let vs detest these hypocrites more and more and let these things so palpably lewde and absurd teach vs to stop our eares against those a Rom. 16.18 faire words and flattering speeches wherewith they send their sirens and mermaides abroade to beguile and seduce the harts of simple men Yea and let vs cleaue so much the more stedfastly vnto the iudgement of the word of Christ because we see that for the mainteining of their bad cause they are forced so grosly to abuse the same When we see the text of scripture so plaine for our selues that in words it affirmeth the same that we teach and so pregnant against them that they are faine so absurdly to wrest it to serue their turne how can we doubt but that the iudge of truth speaketh on our part and that their setting vp of another iudgement seate is nothing else but an appeale from the sentence of this iudge Let them prosecute their appeale but we will rest in the word and sentence of him whom God hath set vp to be the iudge amongst the heathen Christ a iudge to be reuenged of them that are disobedient vnto him Who last of all because he is the iudge shall award iust damnation to them that are disobedient and will not submit themselues to be guided by his iudgment And though happely they be such as professe his name yet being enemies to his word they are enemies vnto him and shall receiue their iudgement accordingly as who indeede pretend the name of Christ not to honour Christ but by pretence thereof to serue and set vp themselues The furie of Christs wrath against his enimies 13 The prophet nowe hauing set foorth Christ as the iudge of all nations returneth againe to declare his wrathfull indignation and furie against his enimies And to that purpose he addeth He shall sill all with dead carkeises c. Where he compareth him to a bloudie conquerour who hauing gotten the victorie and hauing now the law in his owne handes killeth and slaieth without mercie so that the earth is in a maner couered with the multitude of dead men But what the earthly conquerour doth by crueltie the same Christ heere is brought in as doing by iust iudgement Onely by these termes of bodily slaughter we must vnderstand those both corporall and spirituall both temporall and eternall destructions wherewith Christ shall reward the pride rebellion of them who either in himselfe or in his members oppose themselues against him And if it be a fearefull thing vnto vs to fall into the handes of tyrants who practise these cruell and horrible executions vpon mens bodies how dreadfull a thing should it be vnto vs to prouoke the wrath of him that shall bring this fearefull damnation both vpon bodie and soule Are we mooued to conceiue the bodies of slaine men lying in heapes vpon the ground and doth it not mooue vs to consider the multiude of the world casting themselues heape-wise and headlong vnder the sword of Iesus Christ and dying by his hande And if we naturally abhorre to imagine our owne bodies lying among the carkeises of dead men to be deuoured of wilde beasts and to be as carion for kites and rauens how vnnatural are we to our selues when by contempt of Christ and his commandements we suffer our selues to lie amongst the heapes of wicked men in the damnation of sinne to become the pray and spoile of the diuell and his angels and with them to be partakers of euerlasting fire a Heb. 10.31 It is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the liuing God who is not so gracious and louely vnto them that seeke him but he is as sharpe and seuere vnto them that will not be guided by his worde How Christ hath giuen experience of his wrath in the destruction of the great monarches and potentates of the world 14 Which seueritie the prophet againe denounceth not onely to the baser sort but also to the greatest and mightiest amongst men when he saith that he shal strike the head or him that is the head ouer great countries For by these wordes he describeth the great monarches and princes of the worlde who hauing many and great countries vnder their dominion should in the pride of their greatnesse resist the kingdome of Iesus Christ but yet for al their might should not escape the deadly stroke of his reuenging hand And hereof we finde many notable examples in the stories of the church wherein wee may behold howe vengeance hath followed princes and great men to strip them of their crownes and dignities to bring them to contempt and shame to destroy them by horrible and fearefull death who haue abused their state and greatnesse against Christ and sought thereby the ouerthrow of his church It woulde be too long to discourse of Herode who thinking by the death of Christ to gaine the assurance of the kingdome of Iudea to himselfe was by Caius the emperour depriued of his kingdome and ended his life an exile and banished man of Pontius Pilate who condemning the righteous sonne of God to vndeserued death became afterwards the butcher and murtherer of himselfe of the other Herode who killed Iames and would haue killed Peter also who for his pride was striken by the angell of God and denoured being yet aliue of vermine and lice Looke vnto the Heathen emperors of Rome who were indeed the heads ouer great countries and who practised the greatest opposition against the kingdome of Christ and see whether there were in a manner any of them that so did vpon whom the hand of Iesus Christ was not manifestly to be seene Nero the emperour

only b Iam. 4.12 one lawgiuer who is able to saue to destroy and therefore folow the faithfulnes of the Apostle who as Tertullian saith c Tertul. de praescript cont haeret Nihil de suo indulserunt gaue themselues no libertie to prescribe anything of their owne but kept themselues within the limits of that commission wherewith they were sent vnto all nations d Mat. 28.20 teaching them saith Christ to obserue whatsoeuer thinges I haue commanded you Christ the onely iudge by his word to determine all causes and controuersies in his church 11 Againe because Christ is appointed to be the onely iudge therefore are we to yeelde all our causes and controuersies to bee decided and determined by his worde What sentence he pronounceth we are to stand vnto it where he pronounceth no sentence we are to determine nothing In those infinite controuersies and questions of faith and religion wherewith the worlde at this time is so much distracted and diuided it is wished that there were some iudge by whose indifferent sentence there might be resolution of the truth and so all strife and controuersie might be appeased But who shoulde this iudge be but he that of God is appointed to be the iudge amongst the Heathen euen Iesus Christ who although he be in heauen yet from heauen speaketh vnto vs in the word of the Gospel teacheth vs both what to beleeue what to do that we may come vnto him If any man replie that albeit Christin deed to speake in the Gospell yet we haue need of some iudge to tell vs the meaning of Christes wordes because their is question also of the meaning thereof I answere that this is but a wilfull shift of froward men who by question of the meaning seeke to slip away from the words of Christ when his wordes doe plainly declare what his meaning is Surely if the words of Christ be not plaine enough to make his meaning knowne vnto vs we cannot see but that when some man hath set downe the meaning thereof there may againe be required a meaning of his meaning For God oftentimes speaketh vnto vs so plainely in the Scriptures as that no man can better tell vs what his meaning is then he himselfe doth When therefore he speaketh plainely vnto vs and by manifest wordes setteth foorth his meaning surely then to require a iudge to instruct vs of the meaning of his words is nothing else but to dally with God and vnder a vaine pretence to reiect the truth whereof he hath assured vs. Chrysostome could say a Chrysost in 2. Thess ho. 3. All thinges are cleere and plaine by the holy Scriptures whatsoeuer things are necessarie they are manifest And Austen in like sort b August de doct Christ lib. 2. cap. 9. In those things which are plainely set downe in scriptures are found all those things that belong to faith and conuersation of life What can be more definitely spoken to commend vnto vs the sufficiencie and plainnesse of the Scriptures for the deciding and cleering of all necessarie points Therefore to bee short seeing the holy Scripture conteineth those lawes and statutes by which Christ shall iudge vs and he himselfe hath there set downe the sentence whereby we shall either stand or fall by beleeuing or not beleeuing liuing or not liuing as he hath taught vs let vs set aside all other iudges and iudgements and in simplicity and faithfulnesse follow the rule that is there deliuered vnto vs alwaies assuring our selues that whatsoeuer is necessarie for the obteining of euerlasting life Christ speaketh it in the scriptures somewhere so plainly as that we need not feare to take instruction thereof immediately from his owne mouth And although in those heauenly oracles of sacred iudgements there be many things hard to be vnderstood which may exercise the wits and studies of the best learned and giue vs occasion to admire the deepe and vnsearcheable wisedome of almightie God yet many things also there are wherein God a August ep 3. speaketh to the harts not onely of the learned but also of the vnlearned and yeeldeth not onely a deepe for the elephant to swimme but also a shallow for the lambe to wade in the vse whereof we shall easily perceiue that he hath abundantly prouided for our comfort and saluation Onely let vs be carefull daily to exercise our selues in the meditation of the scriptures least that by our neglect those things become obscure and hard which by vse and practise of the word should be otherwise familiar and plaine vnto vs. The papists chalenging vnto themselues to be iudges of the words of Christ and their practise in that behalfe 12 And as for them who not contented with these resolutions and iudgements of Iesus Christ doe challenge vnto themselues to be iudges for the determining of the controuersies of the church let them follow their owne course We see well enough what their purpose and practise is They see the iudgements of Christ to be manifestly against them But they would perswade vs yea they bid a man b Rhemish Test in the argument of the Epistles in generall assure himselfe that if any thing therein sound vnto him as contrary to their church he faileth of the right sense To themselues therefore and to the bishop of Rome they say it belongeth to giue the sense and whilest they giue the sense we may be sure they will make euery thing to serue their turne and nothing to be against them But by their giuing the sense they bring to passe that when Christ speaketh one thing he must meane another and the sense must be a plaine and expresse contradiction to the words Thus when Christ saith c Ye shall not haue me alwaies with you they tell vs that his meaning was not but to be alwaies really present with vs and euery day in the masse to be offered in sacrifice vnto God And this offering of Christ by the words of scripture is plainely gainsaied which telleth vs that Christ offered himselfe but a Heb. 7.27 once and needed not often to offer himselfe that he is b 9.25 gone into heauen not to offer himselfe often because c 10.18 where there is forgiuenesse of sinnes as there is by Christes once offering of himselfe d 9.28 there is no more offering for sinne But all this notwithstanding we must not thinke that it is so meant but that Christ is to be offered often and being gone into heauen doth euery day concur with the priest to offer vp himselfe and that forgiuenesse of sinnes it not so purchased by the death and sacrifice of Christ vpon his crosse but that we must continually haue in the church an offering for sinne Christ saith in words e Math. 26.27 Drinke ye all of this as was before allenged but we must thinke he meant that all shoulde not drinke but the priest onely The word of Christ is that