Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	glory_n	jesus_n	lord_n	3,161	5	3.4412	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31858	Sermons preached upon several occasions by Benjamin Calamy ...; Sermons. Selections	Calamy, Benjamin, 1642-1686.	1687 (1687)	Wing C221; ESTC R22984	185,393	504

cometh of evil i. e. whatsoever is more than bare affirming or denying any thing that is still in our communication in our ordinary talk and discourse is from evil from mens so commonly breaking of promises and speaking of falsities from whence that lewd custome of adding oaths proceeds because they cannot be believed without them Now therefore since our Saviour is here directing us how to govern our common discourse and conversation together the prohibition also in the beginning must be restrained to the same matter and so the full sense of the words seems to me to be this In your communication familiari sermone in your common talk use no swearing not so much as by any creature but let it suffice barely to affirm or deny and be always so true to your words that nothing farther need be desired or expected from you all other confirmation in such ordinary affairs is practised onely by such as are used to lie and dissemble and intend to impose upon others 3. That our Saviour did not here forbid all swearing whatever cause there might be for it as a thing in it self unlawfull we are fully satisfied from the example of St. Paul who certainly understood his Master's mind in this particular Now it is a very unreasonable thing to imagine that he should so often swear and that by the name of God too that such his oaths should be recorded in the Scriptures and that there should not be the least intimation of his sinning in so doing if all swearing was utterly prohibited by his Lord and Master I shall propound two or three eminent instances to shew that in serious and great matters of mighty concernment he made no scruple of adding the confirmation of an oath Gal. 1.20 Now the things which I write unto you behold before God I lie not He bears witness to the truth of his writings by an express oath Rom. 1.9 For God is my witness whom I serve that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers It was of great moment that in the beginning of his Epistle he should persuade those to whom he did address himself of his good-will toward them How well therefore he did wish them he calls God to witness which is the formal essence of an oath Thus again to name no more 2 Cor. 11.31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which is blessed for evermore knoweth that I lie not which is a plain appeal to God's testimony So that when the glory of God and the publick good was engaged he thought it not unlawfull to invoke God's holy name and to call his Majesty for a witness of his truth or the avenger of his falshood Thus our blessed Saviour himself when he stood before the High-priest of the Jews did not refuse to answer upon oath Matth. 26.63 The High-priest said unto him I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God which amongst the Jews was the form of giving an oath to which our Saviour answered Thou hast said that is upon my oath it is as thou sayst Nay to make all sure that there is no evil in swearing when it is done gravely and seriously and upon an important occasion that requires it we find that God himself hath been pleased to give us his oath Though it were impossible for him to lye yet that we might have strong consolation and full assurance to shew the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel he confirmed it by an oath and when he could not swear by a greater he swore by himself Heb. 6.13 And therefore it must be very absurd to deny amongst Christians the lawfulness of doing that though upon never so great reason which St. Paul so often did nay which God Almighty who is truth it self did yet vouchsafe out of condescension to our weakness to doe more than once Not now to mention Baptism and the Lord's Supper both of which have in them the nature of oaths and are therefore called Sacraments 4. We are to consider that swearing rightly circumstanced is so far from being a thing in it self evil and so universally forbidden that it is indeed a most eminent part of religious worship and divine adoration by which we do most signally own and recognize God Almighty to be the great Sovereign Lord and Governour of the world the highest and supremest Power to which the last and final appeal is in all cases to be made By it we acknowledge the immensity of his presence his exact knowledge and continual care of humane affairs and all things that happen here below his all-seeing eye that he searcheth into the depth of our hearts and is conscious to our most inward thoughts and secret meanings We do by it avow him as the grand Patron of truth and innocence as the severe punisher and avenger of deceit and perfidiousness And therefore doth God often in holy Scripture appropriate this to himself Him onely shalt thou serve and to him shalt thou cleave and shalt swear by his name And if this be done with that consideration and solemnity which doth become such a special part of devotion upon an occasion that doth deserve and that will in some measure excuse our engaging the divine Majesty as a witness in it I say if it be performed with due awe and reverence with hearty intention for a considerable good we do thus calling upon God when we swear by him honour and glorify his great and holy name as well as by prayer or praises or any other act of religious worship whatever 5. Add to this the necessity of taking oaths in order to civil government publick administration of justice and the maintaining of good order and peace in Societies And therefore the Apostle tells us Heb. 6.16 That an oath for confirmation to men is the end of all strife and that not by particular customs and laws prevailing in some places onely but from the appointment of God the reasonableness and fitness of the thing it self and the constant practice of all the world in all ages for as far and wide as the sense of a Deity hath spread it self hath also the religion of an oath and the final determination of matters in difference by calling to witness the Lord and Maker of all things this being the utmost assurance and the surest pledge any can give of their faith and sincerity For nothing can be imagined sufficient or effectual to engage men to speak truth or to be faithfull and constant to their promises if an oath doth not He must surely renounce all sense and fear of God all conscience of duty or regard to the Almighty's love and favour who can with open face call him to testify to a lye or challenge him to punish him if he speaks not true when yet at that very time he knows he does not This is the greatest security men can give of their honesty and

plainness and seriousness I can I apply my self to these three sorts of persons I. To those who would seem to doubt of this fundamental doctrine of a future life II. To those who profess to believe it but not fully and heartily III. To those who do really and constantly believe it I. I begin with those who would seem to doubt of this fundamental doctrine of a future life And though far better things are to be hoped concerning all here present who shew so much respect to religion as to bear a part in God's solemn worship yet since nothing is more complained of than the prevailing atheism of this age and since if we judge of mens faith by their lives we cannot but suspect many of those who pass among us for orthodox believers to be really no other than mere infidels in these matters I shall not wholly pass these sort of persons by not that I design at large to shew you the unreasonableness of atheism or to set before you the undeniable evidences we have of another world but I shall put the whole cause upon this short issue Let us for once be so kind to the sceptical disputers against religion as to suppose what they are never able to prove that it is a very doubtfull thing whether there will be another life after this that it is possible that all these stories of a judgment to come heaven and hell are mere fables the inventions of crafty politicians and designing Priests and that all good and vertuous men have been miserably deceived and fed with fond hopes and fancies and have unnecessarily troubled themselves about the matters of religion and surely you will all acknowledge this to be a very large concession yet granting all this nothing is more plain than that if we would act prudently and consult our own safety we ought to believe and live as if all these doctrines of religion were most certainly true for every wise man will run as little hazard as he can especially in such things as are of highest concernment to him and wherein a mistake would be fatal and undoing Here therefore be pleased to consider I. What little hazard he runs or what little loss he ordinarily undergoes who believes and acts according to these principles should they all at last prove false II. What extreme and desperate hazard he runs who doth not believe nor live according to them should they all at last prove true 1. What little hazard he runs or what little loss he ordinarily undergoes who believes and acts according to these principles should they all at last prove false All that this man loses or ventures is onely some present gratifications and enjoyments which he denies himself he crosses indeed the irregular inclinations of his nature and forbears those excesses that are truly hurtfull to him and lives according to the dignity of his species and is possessed with cares and fears about another world and these even the atheist himself cannot wholly free his mind from and ties up himself to several rules and strict duties which contribute not a little to his convenient living here and perhaps is exposed to some hardships reproaches and sufferings for righteousness sake and this is the worst of his case but on the other side he is blessed at present with a contented life with peace of conscience and the joyfull expectation of an eternal reward hereafter so that if he be in the right he is then made for ever if not if he be mistaken his condition however will be no worse than other mortals he will have lost indeed all the pains and trouble he was at about religion but if his soul survive not his body he will never be sensible of it this disappointment will never vex nor grieve him in that land where all things are forgotten So that a vertuous and righteous man may ordinarily pass his days here more easily and comfortably than any wicked person and please himself all his life long with the hopes or dreams of future glories which fancy alone were it no other will make him abundant recompence for all the self-denial it puts him upon But if these things at last prove true he is then blessed above all expression if they prove false and vain hopes and there be no other life after this yet will it be as well with him as with the Atheist in that supposed state of eternal silence and insensibility He runs no hazard he loses nothing except some forbidden pleasures which in most cases it is best for him even as to this life to be without He is safe if these doctrines be not true and unspeakably happy for ever if they be true 2. Consider the extreme and desperate hazard that man runs who doth not believe nor act according to these principles should they at last prove true for he stakes and pawns all that can be called good and desirable he ventures being for ever undone and miserable if he should chance to be mistaken in his opinion and it should at last prove that there is another life after this And therefore nothing would sooner convince such men of their deadly folly than if they would but sometimes ask themselves when they are calm and sober a few such questions as these What though I have almost persuaded my self that religion is nothing but a melancholy dream or a politick cheat or a common errour yet what if at last it should be true How dismal and of what affrighting consequence is a mistake in such a matter as this what amazing surprizing thoughts fears and despairs will it fill me with if after all I should find my self to be alive when my friends had closed my eyes and should presently be hurried away into the company of those spirits which I had before derided and droll'd upon and into the presence of that God whose existence I had boldly denied What horrour and confusion must it create when my infidelity shall be confuted by such a wofull experiment and I shall find my self suddenly entred into that endless state which I would not here believe any thing of Were the arguments on both sides equal yet the hazards are infinitely unequal since the one runs the chance of being for ever happy the other runs the chance of being eternally miserable Which one consideration justifies the discretion of a religious man in renouncing and despising the glories and pleasures of this world though it were very uncertain whether there were another life after this How much greater madness then must they needs be guilty of who reject this doctrine of another life against all the probabilities reasons nay demonstrations of the truth of it when they have as great evidence of the truth of it as its nature will admit of when God from Heaven hath most plainly revealed it to them when this revelation is confirmed by all the signs and testimonies they can reasonably expect and demand nay when he hath implanted in their