Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	strive_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	13	3	8.7983	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44148	The true reformation of manners, or, The nature and qualifications of true zeal in a sermon preach'd in the parish church of Bridgewater : occasion'd by a more than ordinary concourse of dissenters there, upon that pretence / by Matth. Hole ...	Hole, Matthew, 1639 or 40-1730.	1699 (1699)	Wing H2414; ESTC R8060	15,367	34

that they ran well for a time in their Christian Course but they soon waxed faint and tired and so lost the Prize for not holding out to the end of the Race Christianity is often in Scripture styl'd a Warfare in which you know 't is not the furious Charge but the deliberate Courage and Constancy that wins the Field In like manner 't is Perseverance only that commends our Zeal and crowns our Actions with success and victory And therefore the Apostle wills us to hold on in our Christian Course and to be zealously affected always even to the end which is the first Qualification of true Zeal The second respects the Object about which it is conversant and that must be a good thing It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing where we are taught to measure the goodness of our Zeal not by the height of the Passions of which 't is compos'd but by the goodness of the thing about which 't is employ'd And here two things are to be observ'd for the better clearing of this Matter As First The object of our Zeal may be sometimes a thing that is evil and yet a Zeal about it may be a good and commendable thing as for example All Sin in general and particularly Atheism Profaneness Sacriledge Schism and the like are all very bad things and yet to be zealous against these is to be Zealously affected in a good thing but here the Zeal consists not in the love but hatred of them not in practising but punishing of them yea the worse the thing is the better is the Zeal that is employ'd against it Thus the more bold and daring any Sin or Wickedness is grown the higher act of Zeal is it to oppose and suppress it Again Secondly A thing may be materially good and yet a Zeal about it may be sometimes a very bad thing as for instance All acts of Religion in general and particularly Praying Hearing Reformation of Manners and the like are all very good things and yet a seeming Zeal about them may be sometimes a very evil and pernicious thing as when they are embas'd by bad Ends and made use of to promote evil Designs you know the Pharisees made long Prayers the better to devour Widows houses you cannot be ignorant how some upon occasion attend the publick Worship only to qualify them for an Office and take the holy Sacrament to enable them to undermine the Communion of the Church Do not some talk much of reforming the Manners of others without any regard at all to their own 'T is no new thing to pretend Reformation to carry on very bad Designs and we all know what vile things have been acted under a cloak and colour of Religion so that a great talk and appearance for Reformation may be rather Collusion than Zeal and a pompous shew of Religion about it may be rather a mocking than serving of GOD. In short A thing may be materially good and carry a fair shew of being so and yet may want many Qualifications that are necessary to make it really and in truth such It may proceed from a bad Principle be carried on by bad Means and tend to a bad End either of these may spoil the goodness of the thing and marr the Zeal that is employ'd about it The Object then of Zeal may be good and evil and a hearty loving of the one and hating the other will justify our Zeal in both for as Goodness hath charms enough to engage the Affections so Sin hath deformity enough to beget dislike and aversation and consequently to be zealous for the one and against the other is in both to be zealously affected in a good thing But to come to particulars What are those good or evil things about which our Zeal may be thus lawfully and laudably employ'd I shall mention some of the chief of them the better to direct you in these great and weighty Matters of Religion As First To be zealous for the Glory of GOD and the Honour of his Laws is to be zealously affected in a good thing The Glory of GOD is the great end of our Creation and as the Almighty ever propounds it to Himself so ought we to make it the principal aim and scope of all our Actions Whether ye eat or drink saith the Apostle or whatever ye do do all to the praise and glory of God 1 Cor. 10. This is to be the chief care and business of our Lives in which if we are sincere we cannot easily exceed for the highest degrees of all pious Affections are to be fix'd on GOD He is to have our most ardent Love our strongest Desire our firmest Hope our purest Joy all which when screw'd up to the highest pitch fall vastly short of the infinite Perfections of his Nature and our great Obligations to his Goodness And therefore our Minds should be eagerly bent on things whereby GOD may be glorified that his Power Wisdom and Goodness may be celebrated in the World and his Praises sound to the ends of the Earth Again We are to set our selves with all our might and main against those things whereby GOD may be dishonoured his Name prophan'd his Worship neglected or contemn'd we are to have a tender love and esteem for GOD's Laws and be deeply affected with the breach and violation of them These are proper Matter for our Zeal and are to be prosecuted with the utmost warmth and vigour of all our Faculties and when we stand thus affected to the Honour of GOD and his Laws then may we be truly said to be zealously affected in a good thing yea in the chiefest good and the best of things Secondly To be zealous for the Honour of CHRIST and the Doctrine deliver'd by Him is to be zealously affected in a good thing This is the Zeal here recommended by St. Paul namely To strive for the Truths of the Gospel against those false Teachers that would subvert or undermine them And herein we of this Age ought to be more than ordinarily zealous when the Being and Divinity of CHRIST are both call'd in question and the Mysteries of the Gospel not only denied but derided Is not a Crucified Saviour once more become a stumbling block to some and to others foolishness And do not too many use their Tongues and Wits in decrying all Divine Revelations And is it not time to appear for Christ and his Religion in such a profane and dissolute Age St. Jude exhorts Christians to Contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints and elsewhere we are charg'd not to let go but to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering meaning that we should not betray it by Cowardise nor corrupt it with Error nor suffer it to be lost or swallowed up by Infidelity but to come forth in the defense of the Truth against all its Adversaries to use our utmost endeavours in our several Stations to vindicate the

Honour of our SAVIOUR if ever we hope to be sav'd by him He that denies me before Men saith Christ himself him will I deny before my Father that is in Heaven Now to disown the Truths of the Gospel or to refuse to appear in the defense of them when call'd in question is indeed no better than to deny him And what can such expect but to be for ever disown'd and deny'd by him at the last day Wherefore 't is both the Duty and Interest of all that are called Christians to be zealous for the Honour of Christ to vindicate his Truths and to adorn his Doctrine with a holy Conversation Thirdly To be zealous for the Church of GOD is to be zealously affected in a good thing And that as the Church is sometimes taken for the House of God and likewise for the orderly Constitution of Divine Worship perform'd in it both which are proper Matter to employ our Zeal That ardent Love we owe to God requires us to love the things of God and to have a due regard to all that belongs to him among which we are commanded to hallow his Sabbath and to reverence his Sanctuary David tells us that the Zeal of God's house had even consumed him Psal 69.9 He was so passionately affected towards the reverence and decency of those Places that he thought he could not better shew his Honour to God than by reverencing the place where his Honour dwells After that we read what time care and cost King Solomon bestow'd in building and beautifying the Temple by which he at once erected an Habitation for the Glory of his Maker and a lasting Monument of his own Honour But lest any should take this only for a piece of Old-Testament Zeal we find our Blessed Saviour so zealous for the honour of the Temple that he never discover'd a higher act of Indignation than against the Prophaners of it for himself whipp'd the Buyers and Sellers out of it who had made the House of Prayer a Den of Thieves overturning the Tables of the Money-changers and the Seats of them that sold Doves and that with an Indignation too so much beside his ordinary temper that the Disciples could not but call to mind and apply to him what was prophesied of him The Zeal of thy house hath eaten me up By this great example we learn that a true Christian Zeal may be well employ'd about the purifying of God's house and securing it from all profanation Moreover we find the Apostles extremely zealous for the Peace and Unity of the Church as also for the comeliness order and reverence of the publick Worship us'd in it So that to be zealous against Sacriledge which is the polluting of God's holy Temple and likewise against Schism which is the dividing the Body of Christ is a pious well-grounded and commendable Zeal Fourthly To be zealous in the Cause and for the Honor of God's Ministers is to be zealously affected in a good thing for these belong to him as his Ambassadors and therefore are to be lov'd and treated accordingly Let men so account of us saith the Apostle as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God and for that reason to be counted worthy of double honor The Kindness or Contempt shew'd to them redounds to him that sends them for He that despises you saith Christ despises me and he that despises me despiseth him that sent me and therefore our Zeal for Christ and his Truth may and ought to be exprest by espousing the Cause of his Ministers especially when the great Contempt of Religion hath occasion'd too great a Contempt of the Dispensers of it Lastly To be zealous for the People of God that is for their Happiness and Salvation is to be zealously affected in a good thing Next to the Glory of God and our own Salvation we are to tender the Welfare and Salvation of others and this is to be done by our good Wishes hearty Prayers and best Endeavours for them we find Moses so far transported with love and desire towards the Israelites that he prefer'd their publick Happiness and Salvation before the private welfare of his own Soul praying thus in their behalf either blot out their Sins or blot out my name out of the book that thou hast written Ex. 32.32 Under the like transport of Affection we find St. Paul declaring that his Hearts desire and Prayer unto God was that Israel might be saved withal wishing himself accursed from Christ for his Brethren and Kinsfolk according to the flesh Rom. 9.3 which great Examples recommend to us if not so high a pitch of Zeal yet a most ardent love and desire of doing good to all men and especially to use our best endeavours to save their Souls which is the greatest good that we can do them herein we shall tread in the steps of our Blessed Saviour who went up and down doing good both to the Souls and Bodies of Men which is such a noble generous and beneficial piece of Charity as very well deserves our utmost Zeal and Vigour In a word To be zealous in the Cause of Religion against Atheism and Profaneness to be zealous for the Word of God against Deism and Infidelity for the House and Worship of God against Schism and Sacriledge for the People of God against Seducers that lay in wait to deceive is to be zealously affected in good things and is highly becoming all such as are called by the Name of Christ and would advance the Honour and Interest of Christianity which things require not only unwearied Diligence but undaunted Courage and Resolution to effect them and therefore to engage and encourage you to set about them I shall proceed to the Third thing to be consider'd in our Text viz. The goodness and excellency of true Zeal from those words It is good to be zealously affected c. 'T is good to our selves for thereby we become like unto GOD and imitate the Divine Goodness 't is good unto others for as one Coal kindles another so one man's Zeal helps to quicken another's and blows up both into a bright and useful Flame 't is good to a whole Church and Country who share in the benefit and reap the fruits of a well-guided Zeal yea 't is good in all the fences of Goodness for 't is Bonum honestum utile jucundum 't is pious profitable and pleasant 't is the top and perfection of all Vertue the beauty strength and ornament of all Religion and adds as I may say a Grace to all other Graces Indeed what Heat is to the Body that is Zeal to the Soul the very life health and vigour of it the source of all its activity and motion and as the Body without Heat is but a heavy lumpish Carcase so the Soul without Zeal is sluggish and unactive and little better than dead in trespasses and sins But the Goodness of Zeal may be best seen in the good Effects