Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	seek_v	spirit_n	worshipper_n	2,020	5	12.2044	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59035	The bowels of tender mercy sealed in the everlasting covenant wherein is set forth the nature, conditions and excellencies of it, and how a sinner should do to enter into it, and the danger of refusing this covenant-relation : also the treasures of grace, blessings, comforts, promises and priviledges that are comprized in the covenant of Gods free and rich mercy made in Jesus Christ with believers / by that faithful and reverend divine, Mr Obadiah Sedgwick ... ; perfected and intended for the press, therefore corrected and lately revised by himself, and published by his own manuscript ...	Sedgwick, Obadiah, 1600?-1658.	1661 (1661)	Wing S2366; ESTC R17565	1,095,711	784

men destitute of the Spirit though we be civil and courteous and friendly and helpful if we be born of the Spirit c. Gal. 4. 29. as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now Here is Ishmael born after the flesh i. e. an ungodly and wicked wretch and here is Isaac born after the Spirit i. e. according to the promise of the Spirit and according to the powerful and gracious renewing of the Spirit and presently he is persecuted by Ishmael That must needs be good which Nero persecutes so he must needs be good he must needs have the Spirit of God against whom all the scoffings and mockings and reproaches and persecutions of the wicked are raised Fourthly They that have the Spirit do walk in the Spirit and after the Spirit you read those expressions Gal. 5. 25. and Rom. 8. 4. We walk not af●er Such walk in the Spirit the flesh but after the Spirit Now as to walk after the flesh is to set an● order the course of our life after our corrupt reason and wills and affections following them as our guides so to walk after the Spirit is to dispose and order our conversation according to the rules and motions of the Spirit so to lead our lives and move on in our courses as the the Spirit of God doth teach us in the Word and stirs us up inwardly to follow Thus doth every one who hath the Spirit of God he walks after the Spirit his conversation is in heaven Phil. 3. 20. His course of life is the course of new obedience that newness of life which the Word sets forth He walks not as the men of this world walk nor according to his own lusts in the times of his ignorance but before God in Holiness and Righteousness for by the Spirit he is sanctified to obedience 1 Pet. 1. 2. 1. He prayes with David Psal 119. 133. Order my steps in thy Word Ephes 5. 10. Proving what is acceptabe to the Lord. 2. For the paths Psal 119. 101. I have refrained my feet from every evil way Ver. 8. I will walk in thy statutes Isa 26. 7. The way of the just is uprightnesse 3. For the end so as to advaace the Kingdom and advance the Gospel a living unto the Lord. Fifthly They that have the Spirit are spiritual worshippers The true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and truth for the Father seeketh Such are spiritual worshipers such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth John 4. 23. 24. So Paul in Rom. 1. 9. God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son Phil 3. 3. We are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit Beloved take these two things for certain truths viz. 1. Carnal men are but carnal worshippers a form of worship satisfies them bodily service outward performance Isa 29. 13. This people draw near me with Carnal men are carnal worshipers their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have removed their heart farre from me c. Jer. 12. 2. Thou art near in their mouth and farre from their reins 2. But spiritual men or men of the spirit are spiritual worshippers they do worship God in spirit Object But you will say What is it to worship God in spirit Sol. I answer to worship God in spirit is First To have our inward man taken up imployed and acting in all those Religious duties which we do owe and which we do present unto him As when What it is to worship God in Spirit we draw near to him in prayer for power to repent to believe to obey c. not only our mouthes do pray but our very hearts also do pray and our prayers are the lifting up of our hearts Vnto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul Psal 25. 1. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens Lam. 3. 41. And the very desires of our souls Isa 26. 8. The desire of our soul is to thy name And when you come to him in confession of sins not only your lips do acknowledge them and condemn you for them but your very hearts are ashamed of them and bewail them and judge them And so when you come to hear the Word a bodily presence doth not satisfie you but your hearts do come with your bodies and your hearts do hear and your hearts are ready to receive the Word with gladness and fear Secondly To have an edge upon our hearts in the services of God a kind of heavenly vigor and strenuousnesse so that our souls do come in to it with all the actual strength which they have for the present Indeed a Christan hath sometimes a stronger and quicker keeness of spirit than he hath at other times but still he puts forth as least in his desires and endeavours what power he hath in his communion with God As he seeks God with his mouth so he seeks him with his whole heart Psal 119. 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee he doth not serve the Lord with a cold formal indifferent spirit but as the Apostle speaks Rom. 12. 11. He is fervent in spirit serving the Lord He prayes and hears fervently and repents fervently and believes fervently 'T is true that he falls very short yet what he doth to the Lord he doth the same in good earnest it is his work and his business and if he finds it otherwise with himse●f if he finds a dulness and deadness upon his spirit this troubles him and he strives to shake it off by stirring up himself as the phrase is Isa 64. 7. and that of 2 Tim. 1. 6. and by awaking of his heart and graces I my self will awake saith David Psal 108. 2. and beseeching of the Lord to quicken and to enlarge his heart I will run the way of thy Commandements when thou shalt enlarge my heart Psal 119. 32. Sixthly They who have the Spirit of God are most pleased and delighted in Such delight in spiritual ministrations spiritual and vigorous ministrations which deal most with their spirits and do in a spiritual power most reach their hearts and spiritual condition Beloved this you shall find in experience that a profane heart cannot endure but alwayes hates and despiseth a spiritual and searching Ministry A formal heart hath most satisfaction in a formal Ministry A gracious heart is alwayes best pleased with a spiritual and powerful Ministry with that Ministry which doth come in power and in the demonstration of the Spirit and makes it self manifest unto the consciences of men which is quick in operation and piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4. 12. and which is mighty

iniquity I never knew you saith Christ These things being thus premised I will now shew unto you 1. How a man may so perform his obediential works that he may please God and they may be accepted How we may so perform duties as to please God 2. How he is to walk in Gods Statutes so c. 1. Case How a man must perform obediential works so that he may please God and that they may be accepted of God Sol. For this take these answers First He must be in Christ It is a sure rule That the person must be accepted The person must be in Christ before his works can be accepted Now no persons are accepted but so far only as they are in Christ He hath made us accepted in his beloved saith the Apostle Ephes 1. 6. If the Lord looks on any person as out of Christ what shall he find him what shall he behold in him nothing but a sinful cursed enemy an object of his justice and wrath an offending and offensive displeasing and provoking creature and he cannot but loath him and what comes from him only in and by Christ doth he look upon uw with grace and favour Secondly He must have the Spirit of Christ For they that are in the flesh cannot He must have the Spirit of Christ please God Rom. 8. 8. The Apostle in the precedent verse saith That the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be whence he instances in this verse That they that are in the flesh cannot please God A wicked unregenerate man defiles every good work which he takes in hand Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles saith Christ Matth. 7. 16. Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit ver 17. That of Solomon is pertinent to our purpose Prov. 15. 8. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight And ver 29. The Lord is far from the wicked but he heareth prayer of the Righteous By all which you plainly see that a person must be sanctified by the Spirit of Christ if he would have services or performances pleasing to God and accepted of him if God sees not something of his own work in our works he accepts them not but that cannot be unless our work comes from his Spirit within us c. Thirdly He must worship God in Spirit and in truth this our Saviour delivers He must worship God in spirit and in truth in Joh. 4. 23. The true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him And ver 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth A bare external bodily service the Lord utterly dislikes if the soul and heart come not within our duties they are of no account to God Spiritual service is proper for God who is a Spirit and this pleaseth him Rom. 1. 9. God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit Ephes 6. 18. Pray alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit Fourthly He must perform all his duties of obedience in Faith For without He must perform them in fa●th Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. Now to perform our duties in faith implies 1. That we know and discern the will and command of God concerning the duties which we do perform unto him This is a certain truth That what God requires not that God accepts not He appoints all the paths of obedience unto the sons of men and will not be obeyed according to our mind but according to his own mind and whatsoever we do if we do it not with faith i. e. being not perswaded that this is that which God requires of us it shall not be accepted For Rom. 14. 23. Whatsoever is not of Faith is sinne 2. That we rely upon the grace and strength of Christ to walk and perform the duties commanded For without him we can do nothing Joh. 15. 5. It was a good speech of Bernard upon that passage in Cant. 8. 5. Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning upon his beloved Frustra nititur qui non innititur no good can be done but by leaning on Christ from him is the strength of your sufficiency and not from your selves 3. That we offer them up to God in the Name of Christ resting on his merits and not on our own duties on his doings not on our own doings and expecting acceptance for his sake Joh. 14. 13. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name that will I do Ver. 14. If ye shall ask any thing in my Name I will do it Col. 3. 17. Whatsoever ye shall do in word or deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus The prayers that were offered up with the incense upon the Altar were pleasing Rev. 8. 3. and came up with acceptance Ver. 4. The brethren were kindly used for Benjamins sake and David shewed respect to lame Mephibosheth for Jonathans sake Simile All our services and duties are pleasing to God and accepted of him not for their own sakes but for Christs sake 4. That whatsoever we do in the way of obedience let it be done to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 31. Do all to the glory of God For Rom. 11. 36. Of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen 2. Case Now I come to shew you the choice Rules which do concern us Rules concerning our walking in Gods statutes in walking in Gods statutes or the manner how we must walk in them if c. Sol. The Rules which I will propound all of them shall be taken from the VVord of God and they are these First VVe are to walk in them willingly As Ephraim is said in a contrary We must walk in ●hem willingly sense to walk willingly after the command he was not compelled o● forced but freely of his own accord gave up himself un●o idolatrous worship So should we in a true spiritual sense willingly walk after the commands of God The willingness of our hearts is all in all in the duties of obedience and the more of that the more precious and acceptable is our obedience to Gods statutes 1 Chron. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts q. d. Look well to this for God takes special notice of this and looks more at this than any thing else Psal 110. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power This is the choice Character of the people of Christ they shall be a willing people the word signifies they shall be

character of Gods people the people of God As Jesus Christ was declared to be the Sonne of God when with power he was raised from the dead by the Spirit of holinesse Rom. 1. 4. So are we really manifested or declared to be the sonnes of God when we are regenerated and renewed by the holy Ghost Titus 3. 5. Holinesse is as it were the mark of Christ and seal of the Spirit and the Character of all the people of God 4. You who are the people of God should walk with uprightnesse before the Walkwith uprightnesse before the omniscient God Omniscient and Al-sufficient God This is that which the Lord himself prescribed when he made a Covenant with Abram Gen. 17. 1. I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect And David presseth it upon Solomon 1 Chron. 28. 9. And thou Solomon my sonne know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing minde So Deut. 18. 13. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lo●d thy God Beloved This is a special duty which concernes you who are the people of God the Lord your God doth insist upon this and though he beares with you in many things yet assuredly he expects this from all his people To be upright and to walk uprightly Quest But you may demand What is it to be perfect or upright and to walk so To walk uprightly is before God Sol. I answer it is 1. To walk without guile This is the periphrasis of an upright man that To walk without guile he is one in whose spirit there is no guile Psal 32. 2. that is his heart is sound and real there is truth in his inward parts he is one who loves God with his very heart and hates sinne with his very soul and so to walk uprightly it is to walk plainly To walk before God in truth as H●zekiah expresseth it in Isa 38. 3. Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart c. It is not to make a shew a pretence as if we would follow the Lord as if we would obey his voice as if we would order our conversation according to his Word but it is unfeignedly to endeavour this to walk in all well-pleasing before God He that walks uprightly he doth chuse the wayes of God for his wayes and sets up the Will of God revealed in h●s Word as the rule of his course and cordially strives to come up unto that Will of God 2. To wa●k with a single respect unto God without mixture of wayes and mixture To walk with a single respect to God of ends upright men are therefore stiled simple men Matthew 10. 16. That is simple which is without mixture which is not partly one thing and partly another thi●g partly gold and partly drosse partly honey and partly wax pattly mire and partly water but it is Homogeneal all alike to the substance of it So upright men are single or simple men they have but one heart and but one object and but one way or path and but one end or aim God only is t●● great object of 〈…〉 and Gods way only is the path of their life and Gods glory is only the end of their working and walking It is not sinne and God it is not the world and God it is not a trade of sinne and a trade of holy profession it is not their own praise and Gods glory their own benefit and Gods honour that they mingle together This is hypocrisie But it is God only whom they set up and his waies only wherein they walk and his glory only which they seek And therefore the course of all their actions hath a sincere reference and subserviency thereunto so that God may have glory 3. To walk uprightly is to walk fully and wholly with God Beloved this is a very truth To walk fully and wholly with God That when a mans heart is false and unfound there is then aninequality and disproportion 'twixt the Will of God and his hear● this heart cannot possibly extend it self to the extent of Gods Will nor raise it self to the height of Gods will the will of God seems too large and too strict some one thing or other it requires too much and something or other it forbids too much but if a person be upright his heart and Gods will be commensuerable though the act be short yet the heart is not short the heart of an upright man is as full of obedience as Gods Commands are of righteousnesse and he strives to come up fully and wholly to the Will of his God Mr servant Caleb hath followed me fully Numb 14. 24. They seek him with their whole heart Psal 119. 2. They are perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. Let us go on to perfection Heb. 6. 1. They go from strength to strength Psa 84. 7. I strive if by any means c. Phil. 3. 11. O Christians This perfect walking with God this becomes the people of God and this is most pleasing to God when your hearts indeed are set on God and let out for God and continually set on the Word of God when your wayes are still the wayes of God and your works the works of God and your paths the paths of God when there is no way of wickednesse wherein you may be found and when there is no path of holinesse and righteousnesse wherein you are not to be found when you love your God with all your hearts and serve your God with all your might when you would not willingly do the least evil but fear it nor knowingly omit or neglect the greatest duty but assay and comply with it when your weaknesses are your griefs and the highest pitches of holinesse are your desires and aimes when though you fall yet you will rise and when you have got some ground you must still go further when you are exactly careful to do your utmost in the fruits of righteousnesse and give glory to God alone when you study your services and his praises alone this is to walk uprightly this is to be perfect with your perfect God this is to be wholly his as he is wholly yours this is to bestow all on him who bestowes all on you this is to value the enjoyment of your God alone as a sufficient portion and satisfaction that you need not at all to swerve from him and this is to count your God most worthy of your hearts and of your lives this is the honour of your Covenant-Relation the delight of your God the beauty of your lives the path of your peace the joy of your conscience and the fore-runner of your glory 5. You who are the people of God should walk without inordinate care before Walk without inordinate care before your faithful God your careful faithful never-failing God Matth. 6. 31. Take no thought saying What shall we eat or what

the Spirit of God Sol. One may know that there is a true work of grace although very How a true work of grace may be known though weak By loving Gods image weak First By his apprehension and love of the image of God of this work of the Spirit in whomsoever he finds it His very soul values such a person and doth close with him and is knit unto him 1 Joh. 3. 14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren Every one that hath truth of grace doth highly prize all that have grace counts them the excellent of the earth and is most delighted Psal 16. 3. and satisfied in the society of such Secondly By the choice of his heart he chuseth God to be his God and the By our choosing God to be our God wayes of God to be his wayes I have chosen the wayes of truth Psal 119. 30. I have chosen thy precepts Ver. 173. Although he doth not serve his God in fulness yet he doth in sincerity although he cannot walk in his wayes exactly yet in these wayes he will walk he is a servant to none but his God and traveller in no wayes but his Thirdly By the desires of his soul They are holy and heavenly and spirituall though his work is little yet his desires are great though his enjoyment ares By the desires of his soul small yet his desires are high and amongst others there are these five desires where there is truth of grace viz. 1. An earnest desire of Gods love and favour Psal 106. 4. Remember me Five desires in the t●uth of Grace O Lord with the favour which thou bearest unto thy people O visit me with thy salvation 2. An earnest desire of Christ a hungring and thirsting after him I will seek him whom my soul loveth Cant. 3. 3. O that God would give me Christ O that I could believe Lord help my unbelief Mark 9. 24. 3. An earnest desire to walk in all well-pleasing before God O that my wayes were directed to keep thy statutes Psal 119. 5. they do not keep them but they desire to keep them Lord increase our faith 4. An earnest desire for more grace as Paul Phil. 3. 12. I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus Ver 14. I presse toward the mark A desire of the Word that we may grow thereby is a sign of the new birth 1 Pet. 2. 2. 5. An earnest desire that he might not sin against his God Psal 119. 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee O let me not wander from thy Commandements Fourthly By the conflicts in himself Though there be not a present victory By the conflicts in himself yet there is a present war in every one who hath truth of grace Truth of grace will make a man 1. To love the Law of the Spirit of Christ and to joyn and take part with his good motions and directions and commands The good that I would do saith Paul and I delight in the law after the inward man Rom. 7. 19 22. 2. To hate and oppose the Law of sin Though he doth evil yet he hates it what I hate that I do and though he cannot subdue his sins yet he will oppose them He opp●seth and resisteth the pride the filthiness the passions the frowardness the hardness the unbelief of his heart Fifthly By the griefs and complaints of his soul He is grieved that yet sin By the griefs and complaints o● his soul hath so much power in him and cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and he is grieved that he is so low and weak and short in obedience unto his loving Christ that he can love him no better fear him no more trust on him no stronger and magnifie him no more And he is grieved that he cannot grieve that he cannot believe that he cannot walk up to the Rule of Christ and unto the desires of his soule By the endeavours and actings of his soul Sixthly By the endeavours and actings of his soul He that is weakest in grace is acting according to the proportion which he hath received Simile As old father Latymer said to his fellow-sufferer I am coming as fast as I can brother So the weakest in grace he is stirring and he is doing as well as he can he is doing his Masters will and if he could do more and better service assuredly God should have it from him and glad he is if he can mend one 3. Quest Why no Christian should be discouraged because of the weak measure Why we should not be discouraged because of our weakness in grace All grace is weak at first of grace wrought in him by the Spirit of God Sol. You should not be discouraged for these Reasons First All the graces of the Spirit do begin in weakness we are at the first but babes in Christ and then young men and strong and then Fathers 1 Joh. 2. 12. 13 False grace is too suddain and too ripe it begins where it should end and therefore it ends usually as soon as it begins But true grace is first but weak nevertheless it shall encrease Secondly It will not rest so but gets from weakness to strength and from Yet its growing strength to strength as the Sun in the firmament Prov. 4. 18. The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more to the perfect day Thirdly The weakest grace doth bring God some honour it will make a It brings God some honour man to honor God inwardly and outwardly Rev. 3. 8. Thou hast a little strength and hast kept my Word and hast not denyed my Name 1. Inwardly by setting up his will and authority in the heart by loving of him fearing of him and trusting on him though but weakly 2. Outwardly by abandoning every evil way by exercis●ng our selves in godliness by countenancing the rules and wayes of Christ and walking before God in truth Even the Children in the Temple cryed out Hosanna to the Son of David Matth. 12. 15. whereupon Christ applyed that of David Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise ver 16. Fourthly The weakest grace is the workmanship of the Spirit of God Not It s the workmanship of the spirit of God only our rejoycing but our tears not only our assurances but our very groans are from him Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered So Phil. 2. 13. It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure To will any good this comes from the Spirit of God as well as to do any good Fifthly The weakest grace is able to unthrone sin and dispossess Satan and to set up a throne in the heart for Christ to hold