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	damn_v	delusion_n	1,893	5	11.0930	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61409	Advice to the young, or, The reasonableness and advantages of an early conversion to God demonstrated, in three discourses on Ecclesiastes xii, I by Joseph Stennett.	Stennett, Joseph, 1663-1713.	1695 (1695)	Wing S5406; ESTC R15661	77,634	190

of God so that we could extend it many Years beyond the ordinary Course of Life or if we had the certain fore-knowledg of the limits which the Almighty has fix'd to our Days if we knew the number of our Months and any of us could read our selves antient in the Book of the Divine Decrees this could by no means justify or excuse our Negligence if we should thereupon presume to delay our Conversion till towards the Close of our Time because of the uncertainty of the continuance of the Day of God's Patience and Grace For as the Days of our Lives are uncertain so is the Day of Grace too and as those are very short so this may be much shorter and we may soon out-live the Time of our Visitation from Heaven and so the things that belong to our Peace may be finally hidden from our Eyes 'T is infinite Mercy in the Great and Holy God to give a wretched Sinner one Smile one single offer of Reconciliation and 't is great Ingratitude and Folly in a guilty Creature but once to refuse to hearken to so Gracious a Call But what words can express the Goodness and Condescension of the Almighty to a miserable Worm when he importunately repeats the Terms of Peace to invite nay to beseech him to be reconciled to him And how provoking must the guilt of that Sinner be who after all this kindness of God towards him stops his Ears at his Counsel like the deaf Adder that will not hearken to the Voice of Charmers charming never so wisely And therefore 't is not to be wonder'd at if his abused Patience and Mercy be turn'd into Indignation and Wrath And thus it often comes to pass Because Men receive not the love of the Truth that they might be saved God sends them strong Delusion that they should believe a Lie and that they all may be damned who believe not the Truth but have pleasure in Vnrighteousness And the Word of God instead of being the savour of Life unto Life becomes the savour of Death unto Death to them Thus the Righteous God sets his Face against them that stiffen their Necks against him and hardens their Hearts in Judgment who themselves have harden'd them against the offers of Mercy If the declining Church of Ephesus was threaten'd with the removal of her Candlestick in case she refus'd to hearken to the Voice of our Saviour when he call'd her to Repentance how justly may every impenitent Sinner fear the speedy ending of the Day of Grace to him And if at one Sermon of the Apostle Paul's as some of the Iews his Auditors were converted so others of them were judicially sealed up in hardness of heart and blindness of mind the most dreadful punishment on this side Hell and the Gospel which they had rejected and despis'd was suddenly snatch'd from them to be carried to the ignorant Heathen Is it not still to be fear'd that they that defer to yield themselves to the obedience of Faith when the glad Tidings of Salvation have been again and again publish'd to them may utterly fall short of Happiness by this their Obstinacy and Vnbelief And if profane Esau who for one morsel of Meat sold his Birth-right was afterwards rejected when he would have inherited the Blessing and found no place of Repentance tho he sought it carefully with Tears How justly may God reject them who have often resisted the Spirit of Grace And suffer them to mourn at last without pity in their greatest Distress who have often griev'd the Holy Spirit in gratifying their sinful Inclinations And seeing he has said his Spirit shall not always strive with Men who knows how soon he may shut up his tender Mercies in Displeasure against those that have long rebell'd against him and swear in his Wrath that they shall never enter into his Rest How soon he may accomplish that terrible Threatening he has pronounc'd against the Impenitent He that hardens his Neck being often reprov'd shall suddenly be destroy'd and that without Remedy 3. There is not only a possibility or a bare likelihood of the expiration of the Day of Grace to those that spend the best of their Time in Rebellion against their Maker before they arrive at old Age But on the contrary there is only a possibility and no likelihood that the Holy Spirit should continue to strive with them at the winding up of their Days who through the greatest part of their Time have resisted his Counsels and Motions And 't is not only Reason that furnishes us with proofs of this from the Soveraignty and Justice of God consider'd with the great Aggravations of Impenitency under the means of Grace or the Threatnings in the Holy Scripture that plainly include this danger as appears from the last Head insisted on but Experience joins issue in this matter and evinces that what our Saviour says of Rich Men may with as much reason and force be applied to old Sinners namely That 't is easier for a Camel to pass through the eye of a Needle than for such to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And if this Saying seem severe to any in respect of these last as it did to the Disciples of Christ in regard of the other it cannot justly be soften'd with any farther addition than that which our Saviour subjoin'd to qualify his words in the first case viz. That nothing is impossible with God 'T is a thing possible because all things are so to God but very unlikely and not to be often expected and when at any time it comes to pass God may be said to make a step out of the ordinary method of the Dispensation of his Grace somewhat like that he makes when he works a Miracle in the Sphere of Nature In this matter I say one may safely appeal to Experience Let any one that is acquainted with a considerable number of pious and aged Persons ask each of them from what time he dates his Conversion and for one that has had that happy Change wrought on his Soul since he became Old he shall find many that turn'd to God in the strength and verdure of their Youth And can there be a greater instance given then of the deceitfulness of Sin and of the bewitching power it has over the common Sense and Reason of Mankind than we have in the vain promises of Repentance in old Age wherewith so many flatter themselves and by which they seem to hope to render God propitious to them Is any kind of Folly so great in its Degree or so dangerous in its Consequences as this For Mortals to lull themselves asleep in Sin and sing a stupifying Requiem to their Souls while they hang on the brink of eternal Perdition when their vain Hope has merely this uncertain foundation That there is a bare possibility that