Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
truth_n deed_n light_n reprove_v 2,125 5 10.3012 5 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A39695 The touchstone of sincerity, or, The signs of grace and symptomes of hypocrisie opened in a practical treatise upon Revelations III 17, 18 being the second part of the Saint indeed / by John Flavell ... Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.; Flavel, John, 1630?-1691. Saint indeed, or, The great work of a Christian opened and pressed. 1698 (1698) Wing F1202; ESTC R40933 101,310 218

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

they had ●amps of profession as well as others and saw ●ot the cheat till the cry was heard at mid●ight and their unfurnished Lamps went ●ut Matth. 25. 2. Secondly The promises of salvation are ●ade over to tryed grace and such only as ●ill endure the tryal So James 1. 12. Blessed 〈◊〉 the man that endureth temptation for when 〈◊〉 is tryed he shall receive the Crown of life ●hich God hath promised to them that love him 〈◊〉 must be first tryed and then crowned 〈◊〉 a man strive for masteries yet is he not Crown●d except he strive lawfully 2 Tim. 2. 5. he ●anifestly alludes to the Roman Games to ●hich there were Judges appointed to see ●hat no foul play were offered contrary to 〈◊〉 Law for wrestling and where it was ●●und the Crown was denyed them Not to ●im that sets forth in the morning with re●lution and gallantry but to him that holds 〈◊〉 till the evening of his life is the pro●ise made Matth. 10. 22. He that endureth 〈◊〉 the end shall be saved so Rom. 2. 7. To ●em who by patient continuance in well doing 〈◊〉 for glory and honour and immortality eternal life and once more Heb. 3. 15. We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end So that if you should endure some few slighter troubles and faint at last give out when a closer tryal befals you all your labours and sufferings are in vain Sincerity and final perseverance are the conditions of all special promises 3. Thirdly Every mans graces and duties must be tryed and weighed by God in the great day and if they cannot endure these lesser tryals to which God exposed them now how will they endure that severe and exact tryal to which he will bring them then No man can search his own heart with that exactness in this world as God will search i● in the world to come I may say in this case to you as the Lord spake to Ieremiah cl ap 12. 5. If thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied thee then how canst thou contend with horses and if in the land of peace wherein thou trustedst they have wearited thee then how wilt tho● do in the swelling of Iordan This was spoken to encourage the Prophet to constancy in his work and as if the Lord had said O Ieremy do the strivings of the men of Anat hoth thine own Town dishearten thee pluck up thy spirits and faint not there are harder Tryals than these that thou must undergo at Ierusalem these are no more to what is coming than the running with footmen is to contending with horses or the passing a small Rivulet to the swellings of Iordan To allude to this If our graces and duties cannot bear these lighter tryals if a little lift of prosperity or lighter stroke of adversity discover so much falseness rottenness pride and selfishness in the heart If we cannot resist the motions of corruptions but yield our selves to obey sin in the lusts of it If we can neither keep our hearts with God in duties nor mourn for our wanderings from him If a few scoffs from wicked tongues or tryals of persecution from the hands of men will cause us to faint in the way and turn back from following the Lord what shall we do when he comes whose fan is in his hand and who will throughly purge his floor Mat. 3. 12. who will try every mans work as by fire 1 Cor. 3. 13. search the secrets of all hearts Rom. 2. 16. weigh every man to his ounces and drachms Surely we can take little comfort in that which is so unable to bear the severe tryals of that day that it cannot stand before the slighter Tryals of this day 4. Fourthly True grace is willing to be tryed and nothing is more desirable to an upright soul than to know his own condition If therefore we shun the tryal and are loth to search our selves or be searched by the Lord our condition is suspicious and we can take little comfort in it It was Davids earnest desire Psal. 139. 23. that God would throughly search his heart and reins and see if there were any way of wickedness in him false grace is shy of Gods eye it cares not to be examined but this is the delight of sincere ones every one that doth evil hateth the light lest his deeds should be reproved but he that doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God John 3. 20 21. The reason is plain why Hypocrisie cannot endure to come to the. Touchstone and test for Hypocrites ●aving a secret consciousness of their own guilt unsoundness know that by this means their vain confidence would quickly be confuted and all their reputation for Religion blasted but O if men dare not stand before the word as it is now opened and applyed by Ministers how will they stand when it shall be opened and applyed in another manner by Jesus Christ O professour if thy condition be good thy heart right thou wilt desi●e to know the very worst of thy self and when thou hast made the deepest search thou canst thou wilt still fear thou hast not been severe enough and impa●●●● enough to thy self nothing will give thee more content than when thou feelest the word dividing thy soul and spirit thy joynts and marrow nothing so much comforts thee under or after an affliction as the discovery it hath made of thy heart thou wilt seem to feel with what affections those words came from the Prophets lips Jer. 12. 3. But thou O Lord knowest me thou hast seen me and tryed my heart towards thee O what a freshing sweetness will stream through thy heart and all the powers of thy soul when thou canst make the like appeal to God with like sincerity And certainly without such a disposition of spirit towards the tryal of our graces we can have little evidence of the truth of them CHAP. XI Containing divers practical instructive Inferences from this doctrine with a serious exhortation to self-tryal and through examination SECT I. Infer 1. ARe there such variety of tryals appointed to examine the sincerity of mens graces how great a vanity then is Hypocrisie and to how little purpose do men endea●our to conceal and hide it We say murder will out and we may as confidently affirm hypocrisie will out When Rebekah had laid the plot to disguise her son Iacob and by personating his brother to get the blessing Iacob thus objects against it My Father perad venture will feel me and I shall seem to him as a deceiver and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing Gen. 27. 12. as if he should say but what if my Father detect the cheat how then shall I look him in the face how shall I escape a curse After the same manner every upright soul scares it self from the way of Hypocrisie