Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	work_n	world_n	wrong_n	15	3	8.3451	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27047	Three treatises tending to awaken secure sinners by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. True Christianity.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Absolute dominion of God-redeemer.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Absolute soveraignty of Christ.	1656 (1656)	Wing B1420; Wing B1409L; Wing B1437; ESTC R11838	152,069	348

you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake and be at peace among your selves 1 Thes 5. 12 13. And that you will instead of grieving or rejecting your Guides Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you Heb. 13. 17. 7. Encourage your Teachers for their work is great their spirits are weak they are but frail men the enemy is more industrious against them then any men and their discouragements are very many and the difficulties which they must encounter are very great Especially Obey submit and encourage them in the work of Government and Exercise of Christs Discipline and managing the Keyes of the Kingdom which he hath put into their hand Do you not perceive what a strait your Teachers are in The Lord Iesus requireth them to exercise his Discipline faithfully and impartially He giveth them not empty Titles of Rule but layes upon them the burden of Ruling It is his work more then their honour that he intends and if they will have the Honor it must be by the work The work is as to Teach the ignorant and convince the unbelieving and gainsaying so to admonish the disorderly and scandalous and to reject and cast out of the Communion of the Church the Obstinate and Impenitent and to set by the Leprous that they infect not the rest and to seperate thus the precious from the vile by Christs D●scipline that dividing separation and soul destroying Transgressions may be prevented or cured This work Christ hath charged upon them and will have it done who ever is against it If they obey him and do it what a tumult what clamours discontents will they raise How many will be ready to rise up against them with hatred and scorn though it be the undoubted work of Christ which even under persecution was performed by the Church-Guides When they do but keep a scandalous untractable Sinner from the Communion of the Church in the Lords Supper what repinings doth it raise But alas this is a small part of the Discipline If all the apparently obstinate and impenitent were cast out what a stir would they make And if Christ be not obeyed what a stir will conscience make And it is not only between Christ and men but between men and men that your Guides are put upon streights The Separatists reproach them for suffering the Impenitent to continue members of their Churches and make it the pretence of their separation from them having little to say of any moment against the authorized way of Government but only against our slackness in the Execution And if we should set to the close Exercise of it as is meet how would City and Country ring of it and what Indignation should we raise in the multitude against us O what need have your Guides of your Encouragement and best Assistance in this streight God hath set them on a work so ungrateful and displeasing to flesh and blood that they cannot be faithful in it but twenty to one they will draw a world of Hatred upon themselves if not mens fists about their ears Festred sores will not be lancht and searcht with ease Corrupted members are unwilling to be cut off and cast aside Especially if any of the great ones fall under the censure who are big in the eyes of the world and in their own And yet our Soveraign Lord must be obeyed and his house must be swept and the filth cast out by what names or Titles soever it be dignified with men He must be pleased if all be displeased by it Withdraw not your help then from this needfull work It is by the Word Spirit and Ministery that Christ the King of his Church doth Govern it Not separatedly but joyntly by all three To disobey these is to disobey Christ and subjection to Christ is Essential to our Christianity This well thought on might do much to recover the Unruly that are Recoverable You may conjecture by the strange opposition that Church-Government meets with from all sorts of carnal and corrupted minds that there is somewhat in it that is eminently of God I shall say no more but this that It is an Able Judicious Godly Faithful Ministery not barely heard and applauded but humbly and piously submitted to and obeyed in the Lord that must be your truest present glory and the means of your everlasting Peace and Joy So testifieth from the Lord Your servant in ●he faith of Christ Rich. Baxter To the Ignorant or Careless Reader SEeing the Providence of God hath commanded forth this plain Discourse I shall hope upon experience of his dealing in the like cases with me That he hath some work for it to do in the world Who knows but it was intended for the saving of thy soul by opening thine eyes and awaking thee from thy sin who are now in Reading of it Be it known to thee it is the certain Truth of God and of high concernment to thy soul that it treateth of and therefore requireth thy most sober Consideration Thou hast in it how weakly soever it is managed by me an advantage put into thy hand from God to help thee in the greatest work in the world even to prepare for the great approaching Judgement In the name of God I require thee cast not away this advantage Turn not away thine ears or heart from this warning that is sent to the● from the living God! Seeing all the world cannot keep thee from judgement nor save thee in Judgement let not all the world be able to keep thee from a speedy and serious preparation for it Do it presently lest God come before thou art ready Do it seriously lest the Tempter over-reach thee and thou shouldst be found among the foolish self-deceivers when it is too late to do it better I intreat this of thee on the behalf of thy soul and as thou tenderest thy everlasting Peace with God that thou wouldest afford these matters thy deepest Consideration Think on them whether they are not True aud weighty Think of them lying down and rising up And seeing this small Book is faln into thy hands all that I would beg of thee concerning it is that thou wouldst bestow now and then an hour to read it and read it to thy family or friends as well at to thy self and as you go Consider what you read and Pray the Lord to help it to thy heart and to assist thee in the Practice that it may not rise up in Judgement agai●st thee If thou have not leisure at other take now and then an hour on the Lords dayes or at night to that purpose and if any passage through brevity specially neer the beginning seem dark to thee Read it again and again and ask the help of an Instructer that thou mayest understand it May it

Country doth so much depend Shall an age of such high pretences to Reformation and zeal for the Churches alienate so much and then leave them destitute and say It cannot be had 4. That right means be used with speed and diligence for the healing of our divisions and the uniting of all the true Churches of Christ at least in these Nations and O that your endeavours might be extended much further to which end I shall mention but these two means of most evident necessity 1. That there be one scripture-Creed or confession of Faith agreed on by a general assembly of able Ministers duly and freely chosen hereunto which shall contain nothing but matter of evident Necessity and Verity This will serve 1. For a Test to the Churches to discern the sound Professors from the unsound as to their doctrine and to know them with whom they may close as Brethren and whom they must reject 2. For a Test to the Magistrate of the Orthodox to be encouraged and of the intoller ably Heterodox which it seems is intended in the 37. Article of the late formed Government where all that will have liberty must profess faith in God by Jesus Christ which in a Christian sense must comprehend every true fundamental or Article of our faith And no doubt it is not the bare speaking of those words in an unchristian sense that is intended As if a Ranter should say that himself is God and his mate is Jesus Christ 2. That there be a publique establishment of the necessary liberty of the Churches to meet by their Officers and Delegates on all just occasions in assemblies smaller or greater even National when it is necessary Seeing without such associations and communion in assemblies the unity and concord of the Churches is not like to be maintained I exclude not the Magistrates interest or oversight to see that they do not transgress their bounds As you love Christ and his Church and Gospel and mens souls neglect not these unquestionable points of his interest and make them your first and chiefest business and let none be preferred before him till you know them to be of more authority over you and better friends to you then Christ is Should there by any among you that cherish a secret Root of Infidelity after such pretences to the purest Christianity and are zealous of Christ lest he should over-top them and do set up an interest inconsistent with his soveraignty thereupon grow jealous of the liberties power of his Ministers and of the unity and strength of his Church and think it their best policy to keep under his Ministers by hindering them from the exercise of their office and to foment divisions and hinder our union that they may have parties ready to serve their ends I would not be in the Case of such men when God ariseth to judge them for all the Crowns and Kingdoms on earth If they stumble on this stone it will break them in pieces but if it fall upon them it will grind them to powder They may seem to prevail against him a while when their supposed success is but a prosperous self-destroying but mark the end when his wrath is kindled yea but a little and when these his enemies that would not he should raign over them are brought forth and destroyed before him then they will be convineed of the folly of their Rebellon in the mean time let wisdom be justified of her Children My Lord I had not troubled you with so many words had I not judged it probable that many more whom they concern may peruse them I remain August 5. 1654. Your Lordships Servant in the Work of Christ Rich. Baxter A Sermon of the Absolute Dominion of God-Redeemer And the necessity of being Devoted and Living to him 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. And ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods FUndamentals in Religion are the life of the superstructure Like the Vitals and Naturals in the body which are first necessary for themselves and then also for the quickning and nourishing of the rest there being no life or growth of the inferiour parts but what they do receive from the powers of these it s but a dead discourse which is not animated by these greater Truths what ever the bulk of its materials may consist of The frequent repetition therefore of these is an excusable as frequent preaching And they that nauseate it as loathsome battologie do love Novelty better then Verity and playing with words to please the fancy rather then closing with Christ to save the soul And as it is the chief part of the cure in most external maladies to corroborate the vital and natural powers which then will do the work themselves so is it the most effectual course for the cure of particular miscarriages in mens lives to further the main work of grace upon their hearts could we make men better Christians it would do much to make them better Magistrates Councellors Jurers Witnesses Subjects Neighbours c. And this must be done by the deeper impress of those vitall Truths and the Good in them exhibited which are adaequate objects of our vital graces Could we help you to wind up the spring of faith and so move the first wheel of Christian Love we should find it the readiest and surest means to move the inferior wheels of duty The flaws and irregular motions without do shew that something is amiss within which if we could rectifie we might the easier mend the rest I shall suppose therefore that I need no more apologie for chusing such a subject at such a season as this then for bringing bread to a feast And if I medicate the brain and heart for the curing of sensless Paralytick members or the inordinate Convulsive motions of any hearers I have the warrant of the Apostles example in my Text. Among other great enormities in the Church of Corinth he had these three to reprehend and heal First their sidings and divisions occasioned by some factious self-seeking teachers Secondly their personal contentions by Lawsuites and that before unbelieving Judges Thirdly the foul sin of fornication which some among them had faln into the great cure which he useth to all these and more especially to the last is the urging of these great foundation Truths whereof one is in the words before my text viz. the Right of the Holy Ghost the other in the words of my Text which contains first A denial of any Right of propriety in themselves Secondly An asserting of Christs propriety in them Thirdly the proof of this from his purchase which is the Title Fourthly their duty concluded from the former premises which is to glorfie God and that with the whole man with the spirit because God is a spirit and loaths hypocrisie with the body which is particularly mentioned because it seems they were encouraged to fornication by

to hope that God will not be God It is in vain then for the unholy man to say he is holy or for any sinner to deny or excuse or extenuate his sin To bring forth the counterfeit of any Grace and plead with God any shels of hypocritical performances and to think to prove a Title to heaven by any thing short of Gods Condition all these will be vain attempts 3. And as impossible will it prove by fraud or flattery by perswasion or bribery or by any other means to pervert Justice by turning the mind of God who is the Judge fraud and flattery bribery and importunity may do much with weak men but with God they will do nothing Were he changeable and partial he were not God 4. If God be Judge you may see the Cavils of Infidels are foolish when they ask How long will God be in Trying and Judging so many persons and taking an Account of so many Words and Thoughts and Deeds Sure it will be a long time and a difficult work As if God were as man that knoweth not things till he seek out their Evidence by particular signs Let these fools understand if they have any understanding that the infinite God can shew to every man at once all the thoughts and words and actions that ever he hath been guilty of And in the twink of an eye even at one view can make all the world to see their ways and their deservings Causing their Consciences and Memories to present them all before them in such a sort as shall be equivalent to a verbal debate Psal 50. 21 22. he will set them in order before them 5. If Jesus Christ be the Judge then what a comfort must it needs be to his members that he shall be Judge that loved them to the death and whom they loved above their lives and he who was their Rock of hope and strength and the desire and delight of their souls 6. And if Jesus Christ must be the Judge what confusion will it bring to the faces of his enemies and of all that set light by him in the day of their visitation to see Mercy turned against them and he that dyed for them now ready to condemn them and that blood and grace which did Aggravate their sin to be pleaded against them to the increase of their misery how sad will this be 7. If the God of Love and Grace and Truth be Judge then no man need to fear any wrong No subtilty of the Accuser nor darkness of Evidence no prejudice or partiality or what soever else may be imagined can there appear to the wrong of your cause Get a good cause and fear nothing and if your cause be bad nothing can deliyer you III. FOR the Third Point Who are they that must be judged Answ All the rational Creatures in this lower world And it seems Angels also either all or some But because their case is more darkly made known to us and less concerns us we will pass it by Every man that hath been made or born on earth except Christ who is God and man and is the Judge must be judged If any foolish Infidel shall say Where shall so great a number stand I answer him That he knoweth not the things invisible either the nature of Spirits and spiritual bodies nor what place containeth them or how but easily he may know that he that gave them all a being can sustain them all and have room for them all and can at once disclose the thoughts of all as I said before The first in Order to be judged are the Saints Mat. 25. and then with Christ they shall judge the rest of the World 1 Cor. 6. 2 3. not in an equal authority and commission with Christ but as the present Approvers of his Righteous Judgement The Princes of the earth shall stand then before Christ even as the Peasants and the honorable as the base the rich and the poor shall meet together and the Lord shall judge them all Prov. 22. 2. No men shall be excused from standing at that Bar and giving up their account and receiving their doom Learned and unlearned young and old godly and ungodly all must stand there I know some have vainly imagined that the righteous shall not have any of their sins mentioned but their graces and duties only but they consider not that things will not then be transacted by words as we do now but by cleer di●coveries by the infinite Light and that if God should hot discover to them their sins he would not discover the Riches of his Grace in the pardon of all these sins Even then they must be humbled in themselves that they may be glorified and for ever cry Not unto us Lord but unto thy name be the glory IV. FOR the Fourth Particular who will be the Accuser Answ 1. Satan is called in Scripture the Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12. 10. and we find in Job 1 and other places that now he doth Practise it even before God and therefore we judge it probable that he will do so then But we would determine of nothing that Scripture hath not clearly determined 2. Conscience will be an Accuser though especially of the wicked yet in some sense of the righteous for it will tell the truth to all and therefore so far as men are faulty it will tell them of their faults The wicked it will accuse of unpardoned sin and of sin unrepented of the godly only of sin repented of and pardoned It will be a Glass wherein every man may see the face of his heart and former Life Rom. 1. 15. 3. The Judge himself will be the Principal Accuser for it is he that is wronged and he that prosecutes the cause and will do justice on the wicked God judgeth even the righteous themselves to be sinners or else they could not be pardoned sinners But he judgeth the wicked to be impenitent unbelieving unconverted sinners Remember what I said before that it is not a verbal accusation but an opening of the truth of the cause to the view of our selves and others that God will then perform Nor can any think it unworthy of God to be mens Accuser by such a disclosure it being no dishonour to the purest light to reveal a dunghill or to the greatest Prince to accuse a Traytor Nor is it unmeet that God should be both Accuser and Judge seeing he is both absolute Lord and perfectly just and so far beyond all suspition of Injustice His Law also doth virtually accuse Iohn 5. 45. But of this by it self V. FOR the Fifth Particular How will the sinners be called to the Bar Answ God will not stand to send them a Citation nor require him to make his voluntary Appearance but willing or unwilling he will bring them in 1. Before each mans particular Judgement he sendeth Death to call away his soul a surly Serjeant that will have no Nay How dear so ever this World