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	world_n	worth_n	42	3	8.2565	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80739	Divine drops distilled from the fountain of Holy Scriptures: delivered in several exercises before sermons, upon twenty and three texts of Scripture. By that worthy gospel preacher Gualter Cradock, late preacher at All-Hallows Great in London.	Cradock, Walter, 1606?-1659.	1649 (1649)	Wing C6757; Thomason E585_8; ESTC R206263	151,866	263

you that profess your selves to be Saints that you would make To repair to this refuge towards this refuge or this garison here in all your troubles I am ashamed and troubled and have been truly many yeers to see Saints and godly people when troubles come on them to spend their wits and beat their brains in finding refuge in outward things O if I were here or there in such a Town in such an Iland in such a Country in such a place I should have it Beloved our song should be Salvation God will appoint us for walls and bulwarks Our way is when all the Kingdoms of the world are shaken to seek to get into that Kingdom that shakes not That is let England and all the world shake I care not so I have the Spirit of Christ the comforter to bring peace to my soul that may set up a garison there that nothing may assault and trouble me Then let all the world let heaven and earth shake I am sure I am safe this is the way It is a common saying of many particular persons Let a man not seek himself any where without in the opinion of men So let not Saints seek refuge and shelter and salvation in outward helps but if they should see the Kingdom of England which God forbid involved in more miseries and troubles and desolations c. Lay this down alway by thee there is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken England and Scotland and Ireland are shaken but there is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Such a garison is besieged such a Town is in danger such a place is stormed but there is a garison that the Lord hath put into the hearts of his Saints that cannot be stormed or assaulted Therefore ply the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of the New Testament by his holy comforter that he would garison thy soul and put peace there And then what shall be the issue I will tell thee that thou with a holy joy and complacency and delight of Spirit when thou seest the very pillars of heaven shaken as it were shalt sollace thy self in thy own garison and walk in the streets of it and be safe thou shalt triumph over all storms and troubles and all that is here Not because that a Saint is able to encounter those things that are here For a Saint is not able to answer if you ask what he conceives will be the end of these things he cannot answer these things but onely he retreats to the middle Region as a bird he flies above sublunary things he can say I cannot tell what shall become of England or Scotland or Ireland but I am sure I know a back door that leads into a Kingdom that cannot be shaken to go into the middle Region where no storms of the Air shall trouble me and there I can rest my spirit I alway for my part with submission to the wise apprehend it as a thing too carnal and too low for Saints to think to finde a resting place in this world any place is heaven in such an Iland in such a Plantation and such a place let it be what it will But a Saint that hath this garison in his heart and minde he is at peace This garison David had when his enemies compassed him and he had no walls when there were 10000 about him he lay and slept For thou Lord sustainedst me saith he The salvation of God was walls and bulwarks about him If this peace of God be above understanding how can it be otherwise then be above expression We can therefore give but a hint of it but such a thing there is The Saints walk in a green meadow by the rivers of waters Psal 23. in the spring all the day and all the night long in beholding the love of God and the Covenant of God made in Iesus Christ the full forgivenesse of all their sins the everlasting union between them and Christ and through Christ between them and God and beholding the Spirit in its working within them and beholding the glory that shall be revealed at the last day the Crown that Christ shall bring with him they walk safely and sweetly and securely though all the Kingdoms of the world and the pillars of heaven be shaken As the heathen said If the world break about his ears he would undergo it without trouble Not because he can answer these things but withdrawing himself to his place from them I cannot tell whether the Kingdom shall stand but I can go to the middle Region to Iesus Christ where there is no storme Learn that and lay aside your great projects like the men of the world of building Castles in the air for Garisons but labour to get into this Garison Salvation will God appoint for walls and Bulwarks Open ye the gates that the righteous Nation which keepeth the truth may enter in This is a speech just alluding to a Garison they use there to open the gates and to shut them and when any body comes they bid them stand and ask them who they are for What are they One saith he is a friend and then they bid open the gates and let him come in if not to shut the gates against him Open ye the gates saith the Lord But none must come in but a friend but who is this friend It is The righteous Nation which keep the truth they shall enter in The word in the Originall it is Truth not Truth not one or two or three or four truths but the righteous Who have a right to Gods protection Nation that keepeth the truths let them enter in That is the word if you will passe this Court of Guard he that shall come into this Garison is he that keepeth truth with a good conscience notwithstanding all the troubles that befall him in this world he shall enter into this Garison Therefore I beseech you look to your selves Truly it is unconceiveable and unutterable what the joy the comfort the worth of that Garison is where it is set up in the soul yet there are no hypocrites no partiall obeyers of Iesus Christ and his laws that shall enter into it Therefore if I speak Hebrew or Greek as it were to you that you understand not what I mean by this Garison look to your selves it may be you have not the word and therefore you cannot get in It may be you walk not uprightly you are not of the upright Nation and people you keep not the truths It may be you pick one truth here and another there that pleaseth you that suits with your reason or your lusts and corruptions or with the stream of the world you honor and respect that and for the rest of the truth let you neighbours take it if they will you will none of it if it bring shame and persecution and reproch That is the reason when troubles come you are at your wits end you know not where to go because

you have not the word you keep not the truth of God The righteous Nation that keep the truth let them come in shut the rest out of doors 2 Pet. 2. there are a people that are cleansed from their sins by the knowledge of Iesus Christ and yet after turn from the holy commandment Beloved there are common generall commandments as I may speak and holy precise commandmens Religion in every age hath something in it that is feasable to carnall men and in every age it hath some nicities and preciseness in it there is somewhat superfluous in the eye of the world in every age from the beginning Now it may be it is ordinary with thee to look to truths that the world acknowledgeth to deal honestly in thy shop for the most part to come to Church and repeat a little of the word or the like these things the world commends thou observest fast dayes or thanksgiving dayes or the like But there are other truths that are more precise and spirituall that worldly men do not apprehend and these thou leavest as nicities And that is the reason many times when thou apprehendest miseries coming upon thy family or thy self or the Kingdom thou art at thy wits end and knowest not where to go God shuts the gate against thee thou hast not the word thou art not a man or woman that hath kept all the truths of God Therefore will you now labour to be a righteous Nation to be upright It is a word that hath ran much in my minde saith God to Abraham I am alsufficient God walk before me and be upright I did not think there had been so much crookedness in the world as now I see The world is like the word Isa 7. young Saplings as the wind goes this way they go this way and when the wind goeth the other way they go the the other way It grieveth my soul to see how unupright people are even professors what a deal of daubing calling darkness light and good evil that think one thing and speak another and go against their conscience it cuts my soul unexpressibly Therefore it is just with God to leave those daubing people they go with the stronger side and say as the world saith and do as the world doth though it be contrary to their understanding and conscience be sure they shall never be admitted to passe the Court of guard to come to this Garison And for their comfort those that come not to this Court or Garison in this world they shall never come to that in the world to come if they come not into this little Court of guard they shall never come to the great one It is a miserable thing for a man to be left without the works a carnall man is left without the works and sin and the devill and men may come and undo him Therefore labour to be upright It is a principle in Religion that Christians should observe and a principle that is a generall grand rule to call things as they are to call a Spade a Spade but men they call evill good and good evill and frame their discourses according to the world they speak according to the world though it be quite contrary to their understanding and in spight of conscience I am alsufficient God walk before me and be upright What is that Do not turn aside to the right hand or to the left If thou will be my servant thou must neither be driven with fear or drawn with favour a hairs breadth out of my Commandments This is uprightnesse lay all the preferments and honors in the world on the one side you shall neither draw them an ace from the truth of Christ and lay all the terrors on the other side you shall not drive them an ace Why so Because God is alsufficient there is the reason as the holy man Doctor Preston hath at large well shewed Why should I be upright Because God is an alsufficient God What is that Men naturally bargaine for gain it is a principle and God expects not that it should be otherwise if any man offer me any thing to turn aside the breadth of a haire out of Gods wayes honour or preferment or the like more then God will give I had reason to turn aside and God would not be angry but I am alsufficient keep in my wayes I will give thee more honour and wealth and riches and preferment then all the world can On the other side could any creature do us more hurt then God we had reason to fear that creature but God is the best friend and the worst foe he can destroy body and soul as Christ saith therefore walk before me and be perfect There is a sweet place in Eccles 3. 14. I know that whatsoever God doth it shall be for ever nothing can be put to it nor any thing taken from it and God doth it that men might fear before him I know that what God doth shall be for ever nothing can be added to it or taken from it that is if God have a design to make you happy all the world shall not take a dram of that happinesse from you and if God have a designe to make you miserable all the world shall not take one jot of that misery from you That men might feare before him That is before him onely for if the creature could do me any measure of good or hurt it were but reason that I should fear the creature and God too but whatsoever God doth is for ever nothing can be put to it or taken from it that men might feare before him All the world cannot do me a farthing worth of good or harme God onely can and he is alsufficient therefore let us be upright before him These are the two words I would have you remember Pray the Lord to stablish your hearts in his love in his Garison that you may be able to triumph over the world That you may be able to say Though all the Kingdoms in the world be shaken yet I am in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken And when you walk in the streets and see such factions of men and there is not a man of a thousand but he temporizeth and wil say this week as the world saith and the next week another way Do not do so walk wisely and speak what you should and as you should but call not good evil and evil good but walk uprightly before the Lord approve of that which is good in the eyes of the Lord Walk in the truthes of God and then God in distresse will bid open the gates there is a man was upright in all the changes of the world he called not good evil nor evil good Open the gates that the upright Nation may come in Expositions and Observations on ISAIAH 27. 1 2 3 4 c. In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong Sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing Serpent even

Christ whereas he usually means Iesus Christ as I could fully cleare it if I had time Let me give you one instance In the last verse of the former Psalm Arise O God judge the earth for thou shalt inherit all nations That is clearly meant of Christ for we know that God inherits all Nations he made the world and he had the command and possession of it but to God in Iesus Christ there is a time when God hath promised that he shall inherit the nations from the uttermost ends of the earth And therefore here by God is meant Iesus Christ For indeed ordinarily and naturally you shall not finde a people conspiring against God properly you shall see no wicked man but in some sort or other he will speak honourably of God but God in Christ God in the mediator God in the Gospell God in his Saints God in Gospell ordinances and the like hence are all the tumults in the world and all the conspiracies against God and his Saints Therefore if you compare this place Thine enemies make a tumult against thee with Psal 2. Why do the heathen rage Or why do they make a tumult as some read it and why do the people imagine a vaine thing the Kings of the earth take counsell against the Lord and against his anointed That is meerly meant of Iesus Christ So take notice of that that carnall men ordinarily do not speak or think evil of God absolutely considered but the worst of men speak well of him when he gives them wealth they thank him when he gives them faire weather they blesse him when he gives them peace and preserves them in their journeys and wayes every one speaks well of God but God in Iesus Christ God manifest in the flesh God in the mediator God in his Saints God in his ordinances God in his commands and the like then the men of the world use to make tumults then they take crafty counsell together and conspire against the Lord and against his apointed Keep not thou silence O God hold not thy peace be not still You see the prophet looks upon God as one that in the midst of these conspiracies did keep silence and hold his peace and sit still Not that God doth use to speak or to stir properly as we men do but the meaning is this that many times when his son Iesus Christ and his laws and his ordinances are most conspired against God as it were doth keep silence I meane Iesus Christ God in Christ when his people and ordinances are conspired against he keeps silence and sits still as though he would let his enemies do what they would and what they list as though God did not see or heed which end did go forward The Lord oft doth this Keep not silent O God I remember that place in Isaiah 40. 27. Why sayest thou O Iacob and speakest O Israel My way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God The meaning of it is this that when the enemies of God as we see Chap. 39. did oppresse this people they did pray to him and looked for assistance from him but he was silent as it were or asleep therefore they begin to say in their heart My way is hid from the Lord and my judgement is passed over from my God that is Surely it is impossible that God should eye and see my wayes and how men deal with me while I am believing and waiting and praying and humbling my soul no my way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed over from my God that is my God hath forgotten to give ear to me Beloved there is a time when the Lord as it were gives cause to his people so to think that he is as it were asleep and lets their enemies go on and none contradict them I was thinking out of scripture that there are three Reasons 3. Reasons of Gods silence in the danger of the Saints 1. To try their faith why the Lord keeps silence when his people are in danger and sits still when there is most need to give help and assistance One is the Lord doth it to trie their faith as we see clearly Matthew 8. 23. where it is said that our Lord Christ was asleep There arose a great tempest insomuch as the ship was covered with waves but he was asleep and his disciples came and awaked him saying Lord save us we perish We read more fully in Mark 4. Luk. 8. he left them when the ship was covered with waves and they were rowing for their lives their Lord was asleep the while and he said to them Why are ye fearfull O ye of little faith Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the sea and there was a great calm Truly the Lord will not suffer his people to be overwhelmed that is certain but he will suffer them to come very near that the waves cover them and fear and horrour shall cover their souls and all to try their faith For faith is the evidence of things not seen take it in all senses take faith for the soul or faith for the body and we live not here by sense but by faith and as the Apostle saith of hope so we may say of faith If we see why do we yet hope If we did see God present striking of wicked men when they consult against his children this were sense men would see that it were better to stick to God then otherwise and there would be a world of hypocrites as Doct. Preston saith for every man would be a professor But God seems to sleep sometimes and keeps silence and leaves his people as he did this poor fishing boat here to see if when they see nothing they will keep faith to him I do find another reason in Isaiah 59 and that is the 2. To try their uprightness Lord doth keep silence in the midst of the troubles of his people as to trie mens faith so to trie mens uprightnesse who will stick to God as to see who will stick to God by faith so who will stick to his cause or his people out of uprightnesse of heart For if God should alwayes appear for his cause God and his cause should have many favourites and friends but sometimes God leaves his cause and leaves his people and leaves his Gospell and his ordinances to the wide world to see who will plead for it and stick to it As you see in that place of Isaiah Transgressions are multiplied saith the prophet in transgressing and lying against the Lord departing from our God and uttering words of falshood judgement is turned back and justice standeth afar off truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter Yea truth faileth and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey And the Lord saw it God was as it were asleep but he looked through the lattice the Lord beheld it and he saw that there was no man