Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	word_n	workman_n	year_n	16	3	4.1540	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44677	A funeral sermon for that very reverend, and most laborious servant of Christ, in the work of the ministry, Mr. Matthew Mead who deceased Oct. 16, 1699 / by John Howe ...	Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1699 (1699)	Wing H3025; ESTC R3677	24,534	76

be supposed to do Considering how numerous how intelligent and well instructed a People he was to take the care of I well remember that about 3 or 4 and 40 years ago being desir'd to give some help on a Lord's-day to that eminent Servant of Christ Mr. Greenhill whose praise is still in all the Churches I then first heard him preach and if my Memory fail not he had about that time in hand some part of that excellent Discourse of the Almost Christian I had then the opportunity of beginning an acquaintance with him His excellent good natural Parts his ingenuous Education his Industry his early Labours in preaching the Gospel of Christ in his native Country in the City and in this place His Conjunction̄ and Society for some years with that excellent Servant of God before named above all the gracious assistances he had from Heaven gave him great advantages to be a Minister of Christ approved unto God a Workman that needed not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth And his multiply'd years unto the 70th with the continual addition thereby to the rich Treasury of his Experiences still improv'd him more and more So that there being no decay of his natural Endowments and a continual increase of his Supernatural you had the best of him at last whereby indeed your loss was the greater but your obligation was also the greater that God continu'd to you the enjoyment of him so long and that in a serviceable state But when he could be no longer serviceable in his stated delightful work it was by the decay not of the inward but the outward man so that when he could preach to you and converse with you no longer he could earnestly and servently pray for you to the end And God did not afflict you by leaving long among you only the shadow the outside of the man and of such a man He took little pleasure in embroiling himself or his Hearers in needless and fruitless Controversies The great substantial Doctrines of the Gospel were his principal study and delight such as lay nearest the Vitals and the very Heart of Religion and Godliness and most directly tending to the saving them that heard him The Subjects which he chose to insist upon from time to time in the course of his Ministry shew'd as to this his Spirit and Design Having formed from the H. Scriptures that Scheme of Thoughts which satisfy'd him and gave him a clear ground whereupon to preach the Gospel with an unrecoiling Heart he lov'd not to discompose it His Judgment in things which had that reference being constantly moderate and unexceptionably sound remote from rigorous and indesensible extremities on the one hand and the other Hereupon he drove at his mark without diversion not so much aiming to proselyte Souls to a Party as to Christ. And to engage men as much as in him lay to be sound and thorough Christians Hitherto tended his Sermons from Year to Year The great Subject he had in hand and which he left unfinish'd when God took him off from his publick work was manifestly pointed this way viz. Of the Covenant of God in Christ. And his annual course of preaching a Sermon on May-day to Young Men had the same manifest scope and aim with which his publick Labours were concluded God so ordering it that his last Sermon was this Year on that day His Judgment in reference to matters of Church Order was for Union and Communion of all visible Christians viz. of such as did visibly hold the Head as to the principal credenda and agenda of Christianity The great things belonging to the Faith and Practice of a Christian so as nothing be made necessary to Christian Communion but what Christ hath made necessary or what is indeed necessary to one's being a Christian What he publickly essay'd to this purpose the World knows And many more private endeavours and strugglings of his for such an Union I have not been unacquainted with The unsuccessfulness of which endeavours he said not long before his last confinement he thought would break his Heart He having openly among divers persons and with great earnestness sometime before exprest his consent to some Proposals which if the Parties concern'd had agreed in the desire of the thing it self must unavoidably have inferr'd such an Union without prejudice to their Principles and on such terms as must have extended it much further else it had signify'd little But this must be effected as is too apparent not by meer humane endeavour but by an Almighty Spirit pour'd forth which after we have suffered a while shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put us into joynt and make every joynt know its place in the Body 1 Pet. 5. 10. Shall conquer private Interests and Inclinations and over-awe mens Hearts by the Authority of the Divine Law which now how express soever it is little availeth against such prepossessions Till then Christianity will be among us a languishing withering thing When the season comes of such an effusion of the Spirit from on high there will be no Parties And a midst the Wilderness-Desolation that cannot but be till that season comes it matters little and signifies to me scarce one straw what Party of us is uppermost The most righteous as they may be vogu'd will be but as Briars and scratching Thorns and it is better to suffer by such than be of them In the mean time it is a mark of God's heavy displeasure when persons of so healing Spirits are taken away And if it awaken any of us that will tend to prepare us for the effects of it which Preparation seems a thing more to be hoped than prevention But this worthy Servant of Christ sees not the woful day whatever of it he might foresee His removal makes to many indeed a woful day and that all about him did long foresee He was long languishing and even dying daily But amidst surrounding death as a Relation told me there was no appearance of any the least Cloud upon his Spirit that obscured the evidences of his Title to a Blessed Eternity Being asked how he did he said Going home as every honest man ought when his work is done He was much in admiring God's Mercies under his afflicting hand saying every thing on this side Hell is Mercy That the Mercies he received were greater than his Burthens tho' in themselves grievous That he rested upon that promise that his Father would lay no more upon him than he would enable him to bear That he expected to be saved only by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to him Tho' he well understood as I had sufficient reason to know that Christ's Righteousness is never imputed to any but where if the Subject be capable there is an inherent Righteousness also that is no cause of our Salvation but the Character of the saved And having before precaution'd some as were about him not to be surpriz'd if he went away

saving his own and his Peoples Souls The foregoing words considered in reference to these contain the proper means lie is to use in order to this two-fold end i. e. He is to meditate much on the great things of the Gospel He is to be wholly in them as the words literally import which we read he is to give himself wholly to them He is to be continually increasing in the knowledge of God and that so as not to know only to himself but so as to make known what he knows He is especially tho' that be the common duty of Christians to turn all to the use of Edifying Eph. 4. 29. that his profiting may appear to all For tho' Timothy was at this time a young man yet the most grown did always need to be still growing None have here attain'd their Ne plus ultra but may still write for their Motto Plus ultra all their days even Paul the Aged as he writes himself to Philemon tells the Philippians both those Epistles being dated from Rome and supposed to be written about the same time when he was first there that he had not yet attain'd in point of the transforming knowledge of Christ chap. 3. 10 11. And unto what pitch soever he grew it was still in order to communication He writes to the Corrinthians that he determined to know nothing among them which is so to know as to make known nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucify'd And to the Ephesians that he would have them understand his knowledge in the Mystery of Christ no doubt that their Salvation might be promoted thereby And hereupon in great part depends a Minister's own Salvation as hereafter will further appear But besides he is to take heed to himself and see to the good state of his own Soul he is to take heed to his Doctrine not to corrupt or handle deceitfully the word of God but represent it sincerely and as the truth is in Jesus He is to continue in them i. e. in the things he before exhorts him to meditate on and be wholly in them to continue in the Faith of what was to be believed and the Practice of what was to be done and in pressing and insisting on both And all for the mentioned Ends that he might both save himself and those that hear him And it is this two-fold End of a Minister's Care and Labour that will take us up at this time This is that therefore which as God shall help I am to evince and apply viz. Doct. That a Minister of Christ is to make it his business both to save himself and his hearers I am as the Text directs to speak of these two Ends conjunctly And here I stall not spend time or use a a liberty beyond what is obvious and useful in enquiring into the Counsel of God why he makes use of such in order to the saving of others as need to be saved themselves also But shall principally insist that since it appears to be God's pleasure to make use of such they should therefore most earnestly concern themselves and be very intent upon carrying on this design viz. of their own conjunctly with that of their Hearers Salvation Yet as to the former of these 1. Somewhat it may be requisit to say concerning this Course and Method which we find the Wisdom and Good-pleasure of God have pitch'd upon for the carrying on a saving Design in this World to make use of such for the saving of others as do need to endeavour the saving of themselves And here I shall briefly shew 1. How it is to be understood 2. How the fitness of this Course may be evinced As to the former we shall briefly note That we must be cautious to understand aright how and in what sense any one can be said to save himself or another Therefore 1. It must be understood so as to keep at a remote and awful distance from intrenching upon a Divine Prerogative It being most expresly said Isa. 43. 11. I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour and Chap. 45. 21 22. There is no God beside me a just God and a Saviour there is none beside me Look to me and be ye saved all the ends of the Earth for I am God and there is none else Which plainly signifies that in the highest sense to save is most appropriate to Deity especially with an everlasting Salvation as 't is express'd v. 17. of this Chap. 45. Israel shall be saved in or by the Lord with an everlasting Salvation And that to be so a Saviour is equally incommunicable as to be God How gloriously doth he triumph in this excellent peculiarity of the Godhead in his Expostulations with Job Chap. 40. 9. Hast thou an arm like God! q. d. Come let us compare stretch out that weak withered ulcerous Arm of thine Deck thy self now with Majesty and Excellency array thy self with Glory and Beauty try if thou canst make thy self shine in God-like splendor Cast abroad the Rage of thy Wrath behold every one that is proud and abase him Try thy power upon thy fellow mortals See if thou canst crush all the haughty ones of this World bring them down and bind their Faces in the Dust of the Grave And to recall thee to the greater things mention'd before try if thou canst form me such another Earth as this establish its Foundations lay its corner Stone If thou canst countermand the Motions bind up the Influences of the Stars in the Heavens Then will I confess unto thee that thy own right-hand can save thee vers 14. It is it seems as much above created Power to be a Saviour as to be the Creator or Ruler of the World And how should we dread to think of usurping the Title and Office of the great Emanuel the Saviour who is therefore call'd JESUS because he was to save his People from their sins Matth 1. 21. 2. Yet there is a true sense wherein the saving Act and Power are otherwise and very variously ascrib'd Sometimes to Faith Luk. 7. 50. Thy Faith hath saved thee sometimes to Hope We are saved by Hope Rom. 8. 24. sometimes to Baptism 1 Pet. 3. 21. Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh c. sometimes to Husbands and Wives in reference to one another 1 Cor 7. 16. So is the Gospel call'd the Gospel of our Salvation Eph. 1. 13. And to you is the word of this Salvation sent Act. 13. 26. So are we exhorted to save our selves Act. 2. 40. and others Jud. 23. Others save with fear Thus in lower matters is the act of Writing for instance ascribed to the Pen to the Hand that uses it and to the Writer himself that moves both and we have no difficulty to understand those different forms of Speech Nor is there a greater difficulty in the present case so to ascribe to the Creature the low