Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	christian_a	faith_n	3,911	5	5.5853	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35343	A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at Westminster, March 31, 1647 by R. Cudworth ...	Cudworth, Ralph, 1617-1688.	1647 (1647)	Wing C7469; ESTC R22606	36,595	94

faint away though we strive to raise them and recover them never so much with the Strong Waters and Aqua vitae of our own ungrounded presumptions The least inward lust willingly continued in will be like a worme fretting the Gourd of our jolly confidence and presumptuous perswasion of Gods love and alwayes gnawing at the root of it and though we strive to keep it alive and continually besprinkle it with some dews of our own yet it will alwayes be dying and withering in our bosomes But a good Conscience within will be alwayes better to a Christian then health to his navell and marrow to his bones it will be an everlasting cordiall to his heart it will be softer to him then a bed of doune and he may sleep securely upon it in the midst of raging and tempestuous seas when the winds bluster and the waves beat round about him A good conscience is the best looking-glasse of heaven in which the soul may see God's thoughts and purposes concerning it as so many shining starres reflected to it Hereby we know that we know Cbrist hereby we know that Christ loves us if we keep his Commandments Secondly If hereby onely we know that we know Christ by our keeping his Commandments Then the knowledge of Christ doth not consist merely in a few barren Notions in a form of certain dry and saplesse Opinions Christ came not into the world to fil our heads with mere Speculations to kindle a fire of wrangling and contentious dispute amongst us and to warm our spirits against one another with nothing but angry peevish debates whilst in the mean time our hearts remain all ice within towards God and have not the least spark of true heavenly fire to melt and thaw them Christ came not to possesse our brains onely with some cold opinions that send down nothing but a freezing and benumming influence upon our hearts Christ was Vitae Magister not Scholae and he is the best Christian whose heart beats with the truest pulse towards heaven not he whose head spinneth out the finest cobwebs He that endeavours really to mortifie his lusts and to comply with that truth in his life which his Conscience is convinced of is neerer a Christian though he never heard of Christ then he that believes all the vulgar Articles of the Christian faith and plainly denyeth Christ in his life Surely the way to heaven that Christ hath taught us is plain and easie if we have but honest hearts we need not many Criticismes many School-distinctions to come to a right understanding of it Surely Christ came not to ensnare us and intangle us with captious niceties or to pusle our heads with deep speculations and lead us through hard and craggie notions into the Kingdome of heaven I perswade my self chat no man shall ever be kept out of heaven for not comprehending mysteries that were beyond the reach of his shallow understanding if he had but an honest and good heart that was ready to comply with Christs Commandments Say not in thins heart Who shall ascend into heaven that is with high speculations to bring down Christ from thence or Who shall descend into the abysse beneath that is with deep searching thoughts to fetch up Christ from thence but loe the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart But I wish it were not the distemper of our times to scare and fright men onely with opinions and make them onely solicitous about the entertaining of this and that speculation which will not render them any thing the better in their lives or the liker unto God whilst in the mean time there is no such care taken about keeping of Christs Commandments and being renewed in our minds according to the image of God in righteousnesse and true holinesse We say Loe here is Christ and Loe there is Christ in these and these opinions whereas in truth Christ is neither here nor there nor anywhere but where the Spirit of Christ where the life of Christ is Do we not now adayes open and lock up heaven with the private key of this and that opinion on of our own according to our severall fancies as we please And if any one observe Christs Commandments never so sincerely and serve God with faith and a pure conscience that yet happely skils not of some contended for opinions some darling notions he hath not the right Shibboleth he hath not the true Watch-word he must not passe the Guards into heaven Do we not make this and that opinion this and that outward form to be the Wedding-garment and boldly sentence those to outer darknesse that are not invested therewith Whereas every true Christian finds the least dram of hearty affection towards God to be more cordiall and sovereign to his soul then all the speculative notions and opinions in the world and though he study also to inform his understanding aright and free his mind from all errour and misapprehensions yet it is nothing but the life of Christ deeply rooted in his heart which is the Chymicall Elixer that he feeds upon Had he all faith that he could remove mountains as S. Paul speaks had he all knowledge all tongues and languages yet he prizeth one dram of love beyond them all He accounteth him that feeds upon mere notions in Religion to be but an aiery and Chamelion-like Christian He findeth himself now otherwise rooted and centred in God then when he did before merely contemplate and gaze upon him he tasteth and relisheth God within himself he hath quendam saporem Dei a certain savour of him whereas before he did but rove and guesse at random at him He feeleth himself safely anchored in God and will not be disswaded from it though perhaps he skill not many of those subtleties which others make the Alpha and Omega of their Religion Neither is he scared with those childish affrightments with which some would force their private conceits upon him he is above the superstitious dreading of mere speculative opinions as well as the superstitious reverence of outward ceremonies he cares not so much for subtlety as for soundnesse and health of mind And indeed as it was well spoken by a noble Philosopher {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that without purity and virtue God is nothing but an empty name so it is as true here that without obedience to Christs Commandments without the life of Christ dwelling in us whatsoever opinions we entertain of him Christ is but onely named by us he is not known I speak not here against a free and ingenuous enquiry into all Truth according to our severall abilities and opportunities I plead not for the captivating and enthralling of our judgements to the Dictates of men I do not disparage the naturall improvement of our understanding faculties by true Knowledge which is so noble and gallant a perfection of the mind but the thing which I aime against is the dispiriting of the life

Power of Sinne in our hearts as preserve us from the wrath to come Let us go out against these uncircumcised Philistines I mean our Lusts not with Shield or Spear not in any confidence of our own strength but in the name of the Lord of Hosts and we shall prevail we shall overcome our Lusts for greater is he that is in us then he that is in them The Eternall God is our refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms He shall thrust out these enemies from before us and he shall say Destroy them We shall enter the true Canaan the good Land of Promise that floweth with milk and honey the Land of Truth and Holinesse Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand let your loines be girt about with truth have on the brestplate of righteousnesse and let your feet be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace Above all take the shield of faith whereby you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God And lastly be sure of this That ye be strong onely in the Lord and in the power of his might There be some that dishearten us in this spirituall warfare and would make us let our weapons fall out of our hands by working in us a despair of Victory There be some evil Spies that weaken the hands and the hearts of the children of Israel and bring an ill report upon that land that we are to conquer telling of nothing but strange Gyants the sonnes of Anak there that we shall never be able to overcome The Amalekites say they dwell in the South the Hittites Iebusites Amorites in the Mountains and the Canaanites by the Sea-coast huge armies of tall invincible Lusts we shall never be able to go against this people we shall never be able to prevail against our Corruptions Hearken not unto them I beseech you but hear what Caleb and Ioshuah say Let us go up at once and possesse it for we are able to overcome them not by our own strength but by the power of the Lord of Hosts There are indeed Sonnes of Anak there there are mighty Gyantlike Lusts that we are to graple with nay there are Principalities and Powers too that we are to oppose but the great Michael the Captain of the Lords Host is with us he commands in chief for us and we need not be dismayed Understand therefore this day That the Lord thy God is he which goeth before thee as a consuming fire he shall destroy these enemies and bring them down before thy face If thou wilt be faithfull to him and put thy trust in him as the fire consumeth the stubble and as the flame burneth up the chaff so will he destroy thy Lusts in thee their root shall be rottennesse and their blossome shall go up as dust But let us take heed that we be not discouraged and before we begin to fight despair of Victorie but to believe and hope well in the power of our God and his strength will be half a Conquest Let us not think Holinesse in the hearts of men here in the World is a forlorn forsaken and outcast thing from God that he hath no regard of Holinesse where-ever it is though never so small if it be but hearty and sincere it can no more be cut off and discontinued from God then a Sun-beam here upon Earth can be broken off from its entercourse with the Sun and be left alone amidst the mire anddirt of this World The Sun may as well discard its own Rayes and banish them from it self into some Region of darknesse far remote from it where they shall have no dependence at all upon it as God can forsake and abandon Holinesse in the World and leave it a poore Orphane thing that shall have no influence at all from him to preserve and keep it Holinesse is something of God where-ever it is it is an Efflux from him that alwayes hangs upon him and lives in him as the Sun-beams though they guild this lower World and spread their golden wings over us yet they are not so much here where they shine as in the Sun from whence they flow God cannot draw a Curtain betwixt himself and Holinesse which is nothing but the Splendor and Shining of himself He cannot hide his face from it he cannot desert it in the World He that is once born of God shall overcome the World and the Prince of this World too by the Power of God in him Holinesse is no solitary neglected thing it hath stronger Confederacies greater Alliances then Sinne and Wickednesse It is in league with God and the whole Universe the whole Creation smiles upon it there is something of God in it and therefore it must needs be a victorious and triumphant thing Wickednesse is a weak cowardly and guilty thing a fearfull and trembling Shadow It is the Child of Ignorance and Darknesse it is afraid of Light and cannot possibly withstand the power of it nor endure the sight of its glittering Armour It is allianced to none but wretched forlorn and apostate Spirits that do what they can to support their own weak and tottering Kingdome of Darknesse but are onely strong in Weaknesse and Impotency The whole Politie and Commonwealth of Devils is not so powerfull as one Child of Light one Babe in Christ they are not all able to quench the least smoking flax to exstinguish one spark of Grace Darknesse is not able to make resistance against Light but ever as it comes flies before it But if wickednesse invite the Society of Devils to it as we learn by the sad experience of these present times in many examples of those that were possessed with Malice Revengfulnesse and Lust so that those cursed Fiends do most readily apply themselves to it and offer their service to feed it and encourage it because it is their own Life and Nature their own kingdome of Darknesse which they strive to enlarge and to spread the Dominions of shall we then think that Holinesse which is so nearly allied unto God hath no good Genius at all in the World to attend upon it to help it and encourage it Shall not the Kingdome of Light be as true to its own Interest and as vigilant for the enlarging of it self as the Kingdome of Darknesse Holinesse is never alone in the World but God is alwayes with it and his loving Spirit doth ever associate and joyn it self to it He that sent it into the World is with it as Christ speaketh of himself the Father hath not left me alone because I do alwayes those things that please him Holinesse is the Life of God which he cannot but feed and maintain wheresoever it is and as the Devils are alwayes active to encourage evil so we cannot imagine but that the heavenly Host of blessed Angels above