Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A65287
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The Christian's charter shewing the priviledges of a believer by Thomas Watson.
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Watson, Thomas, d. 1686.
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1654
(1654)
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Wing W1113; ESTC R27057
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106,135
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340
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endeavour to get good by the labours of Paul and Apollo I mean such as labour in the word and doctrine Let them not plow upon the rock Answer Gods end in sending them among you Oh labour to profit you may get some knowledge by the word such as is discursive and polemicall and yet not profit Quest. What is it to profit Resp. The Apostle tells us Heb. 4.2 When we mingle the word with faith that is when we so heare that we believe and so believe that we are transformed into the image of the word Ye have obeyed from the heart that forme of doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into which ye were delivered It is one thing for the truth to be delivered to us and another thing for us to be delivered into the truth the words are a Metaphor taken from lead and silver cast into a mould This is to profit when our hearts are cast into the mould of the word preached As the seed is spiritual so the heart is spiritual We should do as the Bee when she hath sucked sweetnesse from the flower she works it in her owne hive and so turns it to honey Thus when we have sucked any precious truth we should by holy Meditation work it in the hive of our hearts and then it would turn to hony we should profit by it Oh let the labours of Paul and Apollo have an influence upon us A good hearer should labour to go out from the Ministery of the Word as Naaman out of Iordan his leprous flesh was healed and became as the other So though we came to the word proud we should go home humble though we came to the word earthly we should go home heavenly Our Leprosie should be healed Ambrose observes of the woman of Samaria that came to Iacobs Well She came peccatrix she went away praedicatrix She came a sinner she went away a Prophetesse Such a metamorphosis should the Word of God make Let not the Ministers of Christ say upon their death-beds the bellowes are burnt and the lead consumed they have spent their lungs and exhausted their strength but know not whether they have done any thing unlesse preached men to hell Oh labour to grow some grow not at all others grow worse for hearing Evil men shall wax worse and worse as Pliny speaks of some fish that swim backward they grow dead-hearted in Religion they grow covetous they grow Apostates It were far easier to write a book of Apostates in this age then a book of Martyrs men grow riper for hell every day Oh labour to thrive under the spirituall dew that falls upon you Let not the Ministers of Christ be as those which beat the air Is it not sad when the Spiritual clouds shall drop their rain upon a barren heath When the Ministers tongue is as the pen of a ready Writer and the peoples heart is like paper when it is oiled that will take no impression Oh improve in grace If you have a barren piece of ground you do all you can to improve it and will you not improve a barren heart It is a great Encomium and honour to the Ministery when people thrive under it Need we as some others Epistles of commendation Paul esteemed the Corinthians his glory and his crown hence saith he though other Ministers have need of letters of commendation yet he needed none for when men should heare of the faith of these Corinthians which was wrought in them by Pauls preaching this was sufficient certificate for him that God had blessed his labours there should need no other Epistle they themselves were walking certificates they were his letters testimonial This was an high Elogium what an honor is it to a Minister when it shall be said of him as once of Octavius when he came into Rome he found the walls of brick but he left them walls of marble So when the Minister came among the people he found hearts of stone but he left hearts of flesh On the other side it is a dishonour to a Minister when his people are like Labans lambs or Pharaoh's kine There are some diseases which they call opprobria Medicorum the reproaches of Physicians and there are some people who may becalled opprobria Ministrorum the reproaches of Ministers what greater dishonour to a Minister then when it shall be said of him he hath lived so many years in a Parish he found them an ignorant people and they are so still he found them a dull slothfull people as if they went to the Temple as some use to go to the Apothecaries shop to take a Recipe to make them sleep and they are so still he found them a profane people and so they are still Surely there is some fault or God doth not go forth with his labours such a people are not a Ministers crown but his heart-breaking Oh let your profiting appear to all God sends Paul and Apollo as blessings among a people they are to be helpers of your faith if they toile all night and take nothing 't is to be feared that Satan caught the fish ere they came at their net §. 2. Shewing That the world is a Beleevers 2. The next thing is the world is yours 1. The lawfull use of the world is a Believers 2. The speciall use of the world is a Believers 1. The lawful use of the world is yours The Gospel doth somewhat enlarge our Charter We are not in all things so tied up as the Jewes were there were several sorts of meat that were prohibited them they might eat of those beasts onely that did chew the cud and part the hoof they might not eat of the swine because though it did divide the hoof yet it did not chew the cud nor of the Hare because though it did chew the cud yet it did not not divide the hoof it was unclean but to Christians that live under the the Gospel there is not this prohibition The world is yours the lawfull use of it is yours every creature being sanctified by the Word and Prayer is good and we may eat asking no question for conscience sake The World is a garden God hath given us leave to pick of any flower It is a Paradise we may eat of any tree that growes in it but the forbidden that is sin And they that use this World as not abusing it We are apt to offend most in lawful things The World is yours to traffick in onely let them that buy be as if they bought not take heed that you do not drive such a trade in the world that you are like to break in your trading for heaven 2. The special use of the world is yours 1. The world was made for your sake 2. All things that fall out in the world are for your good 1. The world was made for your sake God hath raised this great fabrick chiefly for a Believer The Saints are Gods jewels
Imprimatur EDM. CALAMY The Christian's CHARTER Shewing the PRIVILEDGES OF A BELIEVER BY THOMAS WATSON Master of Arts of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge and now Pastor of Stephens Walbrook LOND He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall hee not with him freely give us all things Rom 8.32 Godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1. Tim. 4.8 Quà m divites illi qui omnia possident Aretius The third impression Enlarged London Printed by T. R EM for Ralph Smith at the signe of the Bible in Cornhil neer The Royal Exchange 1654. TO THE Right Honourable and Religious The Lady MARY VERE Baronesse of Tilbury And My much Honoured LADY MADAM I Have presumed upon your Ladyship humbly to present you with these few Meditations As it is a rich mercy to have a spiritual Ioynture so it cannot but be a comfort to know what it is 'T is a joy to the young heir to have a view of his estate that is the work of this Treatise to set before you the Land of promise While we are here in the combate we had need look to the Crown to make us fight the more valiantly Moses had an eye at the recompence of reward and that did animate him against sufferings yea our blessed Saviour himself looked at the joy set before him Madam Could we live in the thoughts of these great things to come what sublime what sweet lives should we lead Surely if there be any sadâ—nesse gathers in our spirits if any despondency it comes in at this leak of unbelief Vnbelif is a bad neighbour it is alwayes raising either Jealousies of God as if he would not be as good as his Word Vnbelief with Sarah laughs at the promise Or scruples in the heart whether all these promises belong to us The Devil shot three fiery darts into the virgin-castle of Eves heart whereof the first was the most deadly Yea hath God said He would induce this beliefe in her that God had not spoken Truth and when he had once wrought her to distrust then she took of the tree c. All â—he train of tentation that Satan â—ayes is to blow up the fort of our Faith We had need maintain this grace it is Faith must maintaine us While the Pilot keeps his ship his ship keeps him Right Honourable Blessed be the riches of Gods grace who hath set this heavenly plant in your heart and hath kept you in the faith insomuch that all the shakings of the times have but settled you the more and I doubt not but he that hath begun a good work in you will performe it untill the day of Jesus Christ. What an unparalell'd mercy is it to be kept free in the time of infection God hath given your Ladyship a sound judgement and a tender conscience both which are jewels of great price I may say of you as it is said of Jehoshaphat his heart was lift up in the wayes of the Lord 2 Chron. 17.12 Yet I have observed the more you have been lifted up in God the more you have been cast down in your self It is excellent when the higher we grow in knowledge the lower we grow in humility I speak it to the praise of free-grace God hath crowned your silver haires with golden vertues every one of which doth shine as thosâ— precious stones the Sardius the Topaz and the Diamond Ezek. 28.13 Holiness is a beautiful thing it carries a majesty in the face of it even those that oppose it cannot but admire it Grace differs little from glory the one is the seed the other the flower Grace is glory militant and glory is grace triumphant Theodosius thought it a greater honour that he was a Christian then the head of an Empire Your piety is a greater glory to you then your Parentage it is more to be the daughter of faith then to descend from Nobles or to have the blood royal running in your veins Madam There is a time shortly coming when neither birth estate or any worldly embellishments will do us good you have laid in provision against that time and gotten the new birth when all other birth and Nobility must lie in the dust This is that which makes your name smell in Gods Church as the wine of Lebanon Go on Right Honourable in those paths which have an immediate tendency to life and blessednesse We are like to meet with many rubs in the way before we get to Heaven It is said of Israel their soul was much discouraged because of the way Had we more grace we should have need enough to use it expect we must fiery serpents but the righteous will hold on his way Job 17.9 Is not every Christian an Ensign-bearer to carry Christs Colours We must resolve to be good in good earnest The almost Christian shall be almost saved It is wise counsel our Saviour gives that we should count what religion will cost us Luk. 14.28 It will cost us reproach this is a part of Christs livery which we must weare Think not that our innocency will priviledge us from the reproaches and slanders of the world Christ was the most innocent person upon earth never did any unholy thought come into his minde yet his innocency would not shield him from slander he was called a friend of sinners Let us not be discouraged shall we cease from being Saints because others will not cease from being Devils Is it a wonder when an army is in fight to see the bullets fly abroad and the fire-balls when the seed of the serpent is fighting with the seed of the woman is it strange to see the bullets of tentation flie the fire-balls of slander But if our innocency will not keep us from being shot at it will keep us from being hurt for as no flattery can heal a bad conscience so no slander can hurt a good Again Religion wil cost us persecution this is a part of Christs legacy which he hath left us In the world ye shall have tribulation Our ship would soon overturn if it were not ballasted with some afflictions A Christian is a compounded creature he hath some evil in him therefore God afflicts and he hath some good in him therefore the Devil afflicts Hence that of Cyprian When a man begins to be religious he must think of going into the wine-presse and perhaps the blood of the grapes may be pressed out but the meditation of things to come should sweeten the tryals present and make us that though we cannot live without them yet to live above them What if the times are worse if they make us better and if our burdens be heavy seeing the way we are to go is but short Madam I will not hold you longer I make bold to devote this Manual to your Honour I acknowledge how weak and unfeathered it is therefore unfit to flie