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	worship_n	worship_v	2,731	5	9.3155	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88148	A sermon preached before the Honorable House of Commons: at Margarets Westminster, upon the 26. day of August 1645. being the day of their solemne monethly fast. / By John Lightfoot, a member of the Assembly of Divines.	Lightfoot, John, 1602-1675.	1645 (1645)	Wing L2068; Thomason E298_14; ESTC R200237	25,560	36

and the persecutors of the Church of the Jewes from the building of Jerusalem by Cyrus to the destruction of it by Titus and hee goes no further And there where the beloved Prophet concludeth the beloved Disciple beginneth and taketh at him in this booke and sheweth the state and the persecutors of the Christian Church from the destruction of Jerusalem to the end of the world and revealeth a new Jerusalem comming downe from heaven when the old one on earth is destroyed and one persecuting monarchy and state of Rome equalling in mischiefe and cruelty against the Church all the foure that had gone before it Sixtly and lastly they hold that Antichrist shall bee destroyed before the Jewes shall bee called which is not onely not to be proved by any Scripture throughout all the Bible but easily to bee disproved both by Scripture and reason and it were no hard taske to shew if it were seasonable that the eleventh Chapter of this book by the killing of the two witnesses intendeth persecution against the two Churches Jewes and Gentiles when they shall bee knit together at the Jews calling Upon these six foundations is that opinion built which in it selfe is so exceeding strange and yet which is as strange is so exceedingly entertained I leave the ballances in your hands to weigh the weight or the lightnesse of them and now crave a little leave to present you with six other particulars on the other hand for the clearing and explaining of the Text before us First therefore by Satans deceiving of the nations from which hee is bound up in the Text that hee shall doe so no more is to be understood that blindnes and ignorance in which he kept the heathen for so many hundreds of yeares before the appearing of the Gospel deceiving them with strong delusions to beleeve lies especially with his two great cheats and cousenages that misled all the world Idols and Oracles And that this is the meaning of that phrase deceiving the nations may bee concluded upon not onely by the terme nations nor onely by the truth of the thing it selfe for that was the great deceiving of the world nor onely by the phrases of the Scripture that expresse the errors and delusion of the heathen but even by the very tenor and scope of this Chapter it selfe for it setteth downe the two great cousenings and deceivings of the world by the Devill the one under heathenisme before Christ bound him and the other by Antichristianisme when hee was let loose againe Secondly by the Angels binding the Devill in the Text is to bee understood Christs overthrowing the power of the Devill among the Heathen for I suppose it needlesse to prove that the Angell is Christ his casting down those strong holds of Satan Ignorance Idolatry and lying Oracles by the light and power of the Gospel preached among the Gentiles his bringing them home to the knowledge of the truth and his curbing of Satan that he should no more cousen the world with those delusions and heathenisme as hee had done Thirdly this change of the Heathens condition from the darknes of Ignorance to the knowledg of the truth from worshipping of Idols to the worshipping of the living God from seeking after lying Oracles to the studying of the holy Scriptures from the power of Satan to the glorious kingdome of the Lords deare Sonne this change I say out of that condition so sad and that condition in which they had laine above 2000. yeares was as their changing from death to life and as it were a resurrection from the dead And so is it called in the six and twentieth of Esay and the nineteenth Verse and most expressely by our Saviour in Iohn 5. 24 25. And this is that first resurrection that is spoken of in this prophecie in the fifth and sixth Verses and when the Jewes shall bee called which now lie in a condition much like to the old Heathens that shall bee as another resurrection for so it is also called Rom. 11. 15. Fourthly if I should make a chronologie of these 1000. yeares I should date the resurrection of the Gentiles and their calling in and Christs setting up his kingdome among them from the destruction of Ierusalem from which time Iohn also dateth his revelation For although the Gospel were preached to the Heathen abundantly before Jerusalem were destroyed and almost all the world was brought in to the knowledge of the Gospel and obedience of the faith before that time yet is the date of these things more especially from that because that then Judaisme was wholly ceased and Christianity onely set up the old people of the Lord cut off and the Gentiles chosen and taken into their stead And hence it is that so great things are spoken of the day of Ierusalems destruction in the Scripture as that it is called the great and terrible and notable day of the Lord Ioel 2. 31. Acts 2. 20. as if it were the day of judgment and the dissolution of the old world and our Saviour discourseth it and the end of the world so mixtly together that you cannot know them asunder they are so like Matth. 24. And to this purpose is the Masoretick note upon the first of Genesis and the second of good use which telleth us that the phrase Haarets tohu Vabohu The earth was without forme and voyd is never used againe in Scripture but once and that is in Ier. 4. 23. where the Prophet is speaking of Ierusalems destruction as if then the world were ended and returned to its Chaos againe For here it was that the old world of Mosaick rites the old heavens and the old earth of the Jewish Church and State ended and came to ruine and hence it was that the new heavens and the new earth the new world the new Ierusalem the new state of the world and the new Church of the Gospel began and then it is no wonder if this bee called the first resurrection Here properly began that which in Scripture is so renowned and called the kingdom of heaven that is Christs kingdome in the Gospel set up among the Gentiles when the earthly kingdome of Rites and Ceremonies among the Jewes the kingdome of hell in ignorance and Idolatry among the Gentiles was now finished and the kingdome everlasting of righteousnesse and holinesse set up And at this time it is that the thrones are said to bee set up in Dan. 7. and in the fourth Verse of this Chapter and as our Saviour expresseth it the Apostles sitting on twelve thrones judging the 12. Tribes of Israel that is the Apostolique doctrine judging and condemning that unbeleeving nation and shewing their rejection to bee most just because of their unbeleefe This period of time thus observed and taken notice of would helpe to facilitate and cleare many things in Scripture which for want of observing this do fall under misprison and misinterpretation as instance in that in Act. 2. 17. It shall come to

considered in the Devill to our purpose in hand is the evilnesse of his nature and that the Text intimates unto us when it calls him a Serpent a beast that carries poyson within him death comes from him and a curse is upon him Wee may say of his nature as hee is a Devill as the Scripture speaketh of the frame of mans heart as it was unframed by the Devill hee is wholly evill onely evill and evill continually There is a question among Divines whether there be a summum malune as there is a summum bonum a chiefest evill in that sense that there is a chiefest good They hold it negatively and there is good reason for it but certainly if any thing come neare to the pitch of such a thing as a summum malum it is that evill one wee have in hand For first looke upon him in his being evill hee is absolutely so hee is intentionally so hee is irrecoverably so hee is maliciously so Secondly looke upon him in causing evill and hee was the father of sinne the first cause of Gods dishonour the voluntary cause of his own ruine the malicious cause of the ruine of mankind And thirdly looke upon him in his acting of evill and hee did it at first without a tempter hee doth it since as a tempter hee committed it then at the height of sinne hee doth it now as a depth of sinne and punishment I might inlarge my selfe in all these particulars but I shall onely recommend to you the consideration of these two things the perversnesse of his will incorrigible and the desperatenesse of his condition irrecoverable And thus is hee most truely and primarily that which Jude speaketh of some of his children and members twice dead to bee pluckt up by the rootes Mankind though it fell into the hands this theefe and were stript and beaten and wounded and undone by him yet left hee him but halfe dead not in the sense that some would make of it as if some power and moving to grace were in his nature when hee was falne but in a sense contrary to the desperate estate of the devill that mans will was curable and his fall recoverable So was not the devils either the one or the other The devill is in this in a direct diameter or contrarietie to the good Angels that stood that as they cannot sinne so can hee doe nothing else and as they can will nothing but good so can hee will nothing but evill and as they shall never fall so hee shall never recover First the incorrigible perversnesse of his will is intimated in these expressions of Scripture There is no truth in him and when bee speakes a lie hee speakes of his owne John 8. 44. And the devill sinneth from the beginning 1 John 3. 8. And your adversary the devill walketh about seeking whom hee may devoure 1 Pet. 5. 8. And others of the like tenor concluding to us that the devill is in a continuall motion and practise of sinning and can doe nothing else because there is no truth or goodnesse in him but hee is spirituall wickednesse itselfe as hee is called Ephes. 6 12. Now this obduration of the devils will in evill proceedeth not onely from the justice of God reserving him in such chaines of darknesse to the judgement of the great day but from two cursed principles within himselfe First whereas the evils that men fix their affections upon are chosen by them as appearing to them to have good in them as pleasures profits and the like and so poore men are deluded by shadows the devill in his fall chose evill even under the notion of evill hee being of a knowledge that could not bee deluded and being in a state that could not be bettered And secondly because hee doth adhere unto the choyce of that evill that hee first made and that not onely in regard of the fixednesse of an Angels choyce which as the Schooles tell us cannot change his choyce which hee hath once made quia apprehendit immobiliter per intellectum but also in regard of that malitiousnesse that poysoned his first choyce and hath venomed his whole will and cannot bee wrought out of And thus is the Devil incorrigible in regard of his cursed will and then it is no wonder if hee bee irrecoverable in regard of his cursed estate for if any wicked one deserves that sad doome of Hee that will be filthy let him bee filthy this wicked one deserves it and it is laid upon him It was once indeed the conceit of some that the Devils should in time repent and bee saved but the Devils themselves are of another opinion as it may bee seene Matth. 8. 29. for God and their owne conscience hath told them so James 2. 19. and the Scripture telleth us so Jude Vers 6. Now two reasons may be given of this besides these two mentioned before Gods justice and their owne obduration and these are first in regard of the heinousnesse of their sinne for it was against the Holy Ghost and secondly in regard of the height of their happinesse for they were in termino viae at their journeys end First not to trouble you with any large discourse what the sinne against the Holy Ghost is if ever it were committed no doubt it was committed in the first sinne of the Devill Secondly when Adam sinned hee was but setting forth on his journey towards heaven and that eternitie that God had appointed him unto for his happinesse in paradise was not the utmost happinesse that hee must looke after but an happinesse in heaven whereof that in Paradise was but a type and pledge and so poore man hee stumbled and fell at the very threshold as hee was setting out on his journey and God out of pitty set him on his feet againe or else mankind had never tasted of that infinite good for which God created it But the devill as soone as ever hee was created being created an Angel of light hee was already in the utmost happinesse hee must ever attaine unto hee was in heaven he was in eternitie already hee was with God and what would hee what could hee have more And therefore for him in portu impingere to shipwrack himselfe when hee was got into the Haven for him to despise God heaven and eternitie when hee now injoyed it it hath made him utterly desperate in regard of his condition and never to be repaired or recovered And thus have you seene something of the Devils nature and constitution And I have beene the briefer in the treaty of it because I would not keepe your patience too long upon such a discourse and yet have I taken up such a discourse because I know it would bee exceeding profitable if it could but bring us to see the devill in his owne colors indeed For if to behold God in his essence doth fill the will so full of divine contentment as that as the Schooles speak it can