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	worship_n	worship_v	1,744	5	8.6381	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60942	Interest deposed, and truth restored, or, A word in season, delivered in two sermons the first at St. Maryes in Oxford, on the 24th of July, 1659, being the time of the assizes : as also of the fears and groans of the nation in the threatned, and expected ruin of the lawes, ministry, and universityes : the other preached lately before the honourable Societie of Lincolns-Inn / by Robert South ...	South, Robert, 1634-1716.; South, Robert, 1634-1716. Ecclesiasticall policy the best policy.	1660 (1660)	Wing S4733; ESTC R4025	42,795	62

wayes mentioned of confessing or denying Christ but principally in respect of practice and that 1. Because by this he is most honoured or dishonoured 2. Because without this the other two cannot save 3. Because those who are ready enough to confess him both in judgment and profession are for the most part very prone to deny him shamefully in their doings Pass we now to a Second thing to shew What are the Causes inducing men to deny Christ in his truths I shall propose Three 1. The seeming supposed absurdity of many truths Vpon this foundation Heresie allwayes builds The Heathens derided the Christians that still they required and pressed beleif and well they might say they since the Articles of their Religion are so absurd that upon Principles of Science they can never winne assent It is easy to draw it forth and demonstrate how upon this score the cheif Heresies that now are said to trouble the Church doe oppose and deny the most important truths in Divinity As first hear the denyer of the Deity and satisfaction of Christ. What saies he can the same Person be God and man the Creature and the Creator can we ascribe such attributes to the same thing whereof one implyes a Negation and a Contradiction of the other Can he be also Finite and Infinite when to be finite is not to be infinite and to be infinite not to be finite And when we distinguish between the Person and the Nature was not that distinction an invention of the Schooles favoring rather of Metaphysicks then Divinity If we say that he must have bin God because he was to mediate between us and God by the same reason they will reply we should need a Mediator between us and Christ who is equally God equally offended Then for his satisfaction they will demand to whom this satisfaction is paid If to God then God payes a Price to himself and what is it else to require and need no satisfaction then for one to satisfie himself Next comes in the Denyer of the Decrees and free grace of God What saies he shall we exhort admonish and entreat the Saints to beware of falling away finally and at the same time assert that it is impossible for them so to fall what shall we erect two contradictory Wills in God or place two contradictoryes in the same Will and make the Will of his Purpose and Intention run counter to the Will of his Approbation Hear another concerning the Scripture and Justification What saies the Romanist relye in matters of faith upon a private Spirit How doe you know this is the sence of such a Scripture Why by the Spirit But how will you try that Spirit to be of God Why by the scripture this he explodes as a circle and so derides it Then for Justification How are you Justified by an imputed Righteousness Is it yours before it is imputed or not if not as we must say is this to be Justified to have that accounted yours that is not yours Put again did you ever hear of any man made rich or wise by imputation why then Righteous or Just Now these seeming Paradoxes attending Gospell truths cause men of weak and prejudiced intellectualls to deny them and in them Christ being ashamed to owne faith so much as they think to the disparagement of their Reason 2. The Second thing causing men to deny the truths of Christ is their Vnprofitableness And no wonder if here men forsake the truth and assert interest To be Pious is the way to be Poore Truth still gives its followers its own Badge and Livery a despised nakedness It is hard to maintaine the truth but much harder to be maintained by it could it ever yet feed clothe or defend its assernors Did ever any man quench his thirst or satisfie his hunger with a Notion Did ever any one live upon Propositions The Testimony of Brutus concerning vertue is the apprhension of most concerning truth that it is a Name but lives and estates are things and therefore not to be thrown away upon Words That we are neither to worship or cringe to any thing under the Deity is a truth to strict for a Naaman he can be content to worship the true God but then it must be in the house of Rimmon the reason was implyed in his condition he was Captaine of the Host and therefore he thought it reason good to bow to Rimmon rather then endanger his place better Bow then Break. Indeed some times Providence casts things so that truth and interest ly the same way and when it is wrapt up in this covering men can be content to follow it to presse hard after it but it is as we pursue some beasts only for their skins take of the covering and though men obtaine the truth they would lament the losse of that As Iacob wept and mourned over the torn Coat when Ioseph was alive It is incredible to consider how interest outweighes truth If a thing in it self be doubtfull let it make for interest and it shall be raised at least into a Probable and if a truth be certaine and thwart interest it will quickly fetch it down to but a Probability nay if it does not carry with it an impregnable Evidence it will goe near to debase it to a down right falsity How much interest casts the Ballance in cases dubious I could give sundry instances let one suffice And that concerning the unlawfullness of Usury Most of the Learned men in the world successively both Heathen and Christian doe assert the taking of Use to be utterly unlawfull yet the Divines of the Reformed Church beyond the Seas though most severe and rigid in other things doe generally affirme it to be lawfull That the case is doubtfull and may be disputed with plausible arguments on either side we may well grant But what then is the reason that makes these Divines so unanimously concurre in this opinion Indeed I shall not affirme this to be the reason but it may seem so to many that they receive their Salaryes by way of pension in present ready money and so have no other way to improve them so that it may be suspected that the change of their salary would be the strongest argument to change their opinion The truth is Interest is the grand wheele and spring that moves the whole Vniverse Let Christ and truth say what they will if interest will have it gain must be Godliness If Enthusiasme is in request learning must be inconsistent with Grace If pay growes short the Vniversity Maintenance must be too great Rather then Pilate will be counted Cesars enemy he will pronouce Christ innocent one hour and condemne him the next How Christ is made to truckle under the world and how his truths are denyed and shuffled with for profit and pelfe the clearest proof would be by Induction and Example Bus as it is the most clear so here it would be the most unpleasing Wherefore I shall

difference The onely Exposition that J shall give of them will be to compare them to other Parallel Scriptures and peculiarly that in the 8 Mark 38. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinfull generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels These words are a Comment upon my Text. 1. What is here in the Text called a denying of Christ is there termed a being ashamed of him that is in those words the Cause is expressed and here the Effect for therefore we deny a thing because we are shamed of it First Peter is ashamed of Christ then he denyes him 2. What is here termed a denying of Christ is there called a being ashamed of Christ and his Words Christs truths are his second Self And he that offers contempt to a Kings letters or edicts virtually affronts the King it strikes his words but it rebounds upon his Person 3. What is here said before men is there phrased in this adulterous and sinfull generation These words import the hindrances of the duty enioyned which therefore is here purposely enforced with a non obstante to all opposition The Terme Adulterous I conceive may cheifly relate to the Jewes who being nationally espoused to God by Covenant every sinne of theirs was in a peculiar manner spirituall Adultery 4. What is here said I will deny him before my Father is there expressed I will be ashamed of him before my Father and his holy Angels that is when he shall come to Judgment when Revenging Justice shall come in pomp attended with the glorious Retinue of all the Host of Heaven In short the sentence pronounced declares the Judgment the solemnity of it the Terror From the words we may deduce these Observations 1. We shall find strong motives and temptations from men to draw us to a deniall of Christ. 2. No Terrors or Solicitations from men though never so great can Warrant or Excuse such a deniall 3. To deny Christs Words is to deny Christ. But since these Observ●tions are rather implyed then expressed in the words I shall wave them and instead of deducing a Doctrine distinct from the words prosecute the words them selves under this Doctrinall Paraphrase Whosoever shall deny dis-owne or be ashamed of either the Person or truths of Iesus Christ for any fear or favour of man shall with shame be disowned and Eternally rejected by him at the dreadfull judgment of the great day The discussion of this shall lye in these things 1. To shew how many wayes Christ and his truths may be denyed and what is the deniall here cheifly intended 2. To shew what are the causes that induce men to a deniall of Christ and his truths 3. To shew how farre a man may consult his safety in time of persecution without denying Christ. 4. To shew what is imported in Christs denying us before his Father in Heaven 5. To apply all to the present Occasion But before I enter upon these I must breifly premise this that though the Text and the Doctrine run peremptory and absolute Whosoever denyes Christ shall assuredly be denyed by him yet still there is a tacit condition in the words supposed unless repentance intervene For this and many other Scriptures though as to their formall termes they are Absolute yet as to their sence they are Conditionall God in mercy has so framed and temper'd his word that we have for the most part a Reserve of mercy wrap'd up in a Curse And the very first judgment that was pronounced upon fallen man it was with the allay of a promise Wheresoever we find a Curse to the Guilty Expressed in the same words mercy to the Penitent is still Understood This premised I come now to discusse the first thing viz. How many wayes Christ and his truths may be denyed c. Here first in generall I assert that we may deny him in all those acts that are capable of being morally good or evill those are the proper Scene in which we act our Confessions or denialls of him Accordingly therefore all wayes of denying Christ I shall comprise under these three 1. We may deny him and his truths by an Erroneous Hereticall judgment I know it is doubted whether a bare Error in judgment can condemne but since truths absolutely necessary to Salvation are so clearly revealed that we cannot erre in them unless we be notoriously wanting to our selves herein the fault of the judgment is resolved into a precedent default in the will and so the case is put out of doubt But here it may be replyed are not truths of absolute and fundamentall necessity very disputable as the Deity of Christ the Trinity of Persons if they are not in themselves disputable why are they so much disputed Indeed I believe if we trace these disputes to their originall cause we shall find that they never sprung from a reluctancy in Reason to embrace them For this reason it self dictates as most rationall to assent to any thing though seemingly contrary to Reason if it is revealed by God and we are certaine of the Revelation These two supposed these disputes must needs arise only from curiosity and singularity and these are the faults of a diseased will But some will further demand in behalf of these men whether such as assent to every word in Scripture for so will those that deny the naturall deity of Christ and the Spirit can be yet said in Doctrinalls to deny Christ To this I answere since words abstracted from their proper sense signification loose the nature of words are only equivocally so called inasmuch as the persons we speak of take them thus derive the Letter from Christ but the signification from themselves they cannot be said properly to assent so much as to the words of the Scripture And so their case also is clear But yet more fully to state the matter how farre a deniall of Christ in beleife and judgment is damnable We will propose the question Whether those that hold the fundamentalls of faith may deny Christ damnably in respect of those superstructures and consequences that arise from them I answer in breif by fundamentall truths are understood 1. Either such without the beleif of which we cannot be saved or 2. such the beleif of which is sufficient to save If the question be proposed of fundamentalls in this latter sence it containes its own answer for he that beleives those truths the beleif of which is sufficient to save the disbeleif or deniall of their consequences cannot damne But what and how many these fundamentalls are it will then be agreed upon when all Sects Opinions and Perswasions doe unite and consent 2ly If we speake of fundamentalls in the former sence as they are only truths without which we cannot be saved it is manifest that we may believe them and yet be damned for denying their consequences

passe this over since the world is now so peccant uopn this account that I am afraid Instances would be mistaken for Invectives 3. The Third Cause inducing men to deny Christ in his truths is their apparent danger To confesse Christ is the ready way to be cast out of the Synagogue The Chuch it is a place of Graves as well as of Worship and profession To be resolute in a Good cause is to bring upon our selves the punishments due to a Bad. Truth indeed it is a possession of the highest value and therefore it must needs expose the owner to much danger Christ is sometimes pleased to make the profession of himself costly and a man cannot buy the truth but he must pay down his life and his dearest blood for it Christianity marks a man out for destruction and Christ sometime chalks out such a way to salvation that shall verifie his own saying He that will save his life shall loose it The first ages of the Church had a more abundant experience of this Paul and the rest what they planted by their Preaching they watered with their blood We know their usage was such as Christ foretold he sent them to Wolves and the common course then was Christianos ad Leones For a man to give his name to Christianity in those dayes was to list himself a Martyr to bid farewell not only to the pleasures but also to the hopes of this life Neither was it a single death only that then attended this profession but the Terror and sharpnesse of it redoubled was in the manner and circumstance They had Persecutors whose Invention was as great as their cruelty Wit and malice conspired to find out such tortures such deaths and those of such incredible anguish that only the manner of dying was the Punishment Death it self the deliverance To be a Martyr signifies only to witness the truth of Christ but the witnessing of the truth was then so generally attended with this Event that Martyrdome now signifies not only to witness but to witness by death The word besides its own signification importing their practice And since Christians have been freed from Heathens Christians themselves have turned Persecutors Since Rome from Heathen was turned Christian it has improved its persecution into an Inquisition Now when Christ and truth are upon these termes that men cannot confesse him but upon paine of death the reason of their Apostacy and Deniall is clear men will be Wise and leave Truth and misery to such as love it they are resolved to be Cunning let others run the hazard of being Sincere If they must be good at so high a rate they know they may be Safe at a cheaper Si negare sufficiat quis erit Nocens If to deny Christ will save them the truth shall never make them guilty Let Christ and his flock lye open exposed to all weather of Persecution Foxes will be sure to have holes And if it comes to this that they must either renounce Religion deny and blaspheme Christ or forfeit their lives to the fire or the sword it is but inverting Iobs wives advice Curse God and live 3. We proceed now to the Third thing which is to shew how farre a man may consult his safety c This he may doe Two Wayes 1. By withdrawing his Person Martyrdome is an Heroick act of faith An Atcheivement beyond an Ordinary pitch of it to you saies the Spirit it is given to suffer 1 Phil. 29. It is a peculiar additionall gift it is a distinguishing excellency of degree not an essentiall consequent of its Nature Be ye harmlesse as Doves saies Christ and it is as Naturall to them to take flight upon danger as to be Innocent Let every man throughly consult the temper of his faith and weigh his courage with his feares his Weakness and his Resolutions together and take the measure of both and see which preponderates and if his spirit faints if his heart misgives and melts at the very thoughts of the fire let him flye and secure his own soul and Christs honour Non negat Christum fugiendo qui ideò fugit ne neget He does not deny Christ by flying who therefore flyes that he may not deny him Nay he does not so much decline as rather change his Martyrdome He flies from the Flame but repaires to a Desart to poverty and hunger in a wilderness Whereas if he would dispense with his Conscience deny his Lord or swallow down two or three Contradictory oaths he should neither fear the one nor be forced to the other 2. By concealing his judgement A man sometimes is no more bound to speak than to destroy himself and as Nature abhors this so Religion does not command that In the times of the Primitive Church when the Christians dwelt amongst Heathens it is reported of a certain Mayd how she came from her Fathers house to one of the Tribunals of the Gentiles and declared her self a Christian spit in the Judges face and so provoked him to cause her to be executed But will any say that this was to confesse Christ or dye a Martyr He that uncalled for uncompelled comes and proclaims a Persecuted Truth for which he is sure to dye he onely dyes a Confessour of his own folly and a Sacrifice to his own rashness Martyrdome is stampt such onely by Gods command and hee that ventures upon it without a Call must endure it without a Reward Christ will say who required this at your hands His Gospel does not dictate imprudence No Evangelical Precept justles out that of a lawfull self-preservation He therefore that thus throws himself upon the Sword he runs to Heaven before he is sent for where though perhaps Christ may in mercy receive the Man yet he will be sure to disown the Martyr And thus much concerning those lawfull wayes of securing our selves in time of Persecution not as if these were alwaies lawfull For sometimes a man is bound to confesse Christ openly though hee dyes for it and to conceal a Truth is to deny it But now to shew when it is our duty and when unlawfull to take these courses by some generall rule of a perpetual never-failing truth none ever would yet presume For as Aristotle saies We are not to expect Demonstrations in Ethicks or Politicks nor to build certain rules upon the contingency of humane Actions So in as much as our flying from Persecution our confessing or concealing persecuted Truths vary and change their very nature according to different circumstances of time place and persons we cannot limit their Directions within any one universall Precept You will say then How shall we know when to confess when to conceale a Truth when to wait for when to decline Persecution Indeed the onely way that I think can be prescribed in this case is to be earnest and importunate with God in Prayer for special direction And it is not to be imagined that he who is both