Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	devil_n	father_n	liar_n	1,960	5	10.7881	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45357	The excellency of moral vertue, from the serious exhortation of St. Paul to the practice of it in several discourses upon Phil. 4. 8. : to which is added, A discourse of sincerity, from John i. 47 / by Henry Hallywell ...	Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?	1692 (1692)	Wing H463; ESTC R18059	47,683	182

order to God and to Religion And this may serve as an Explication of Truth as it relates to the Understanding 2. Truth as it relates to Practice is properly Veracity and is opposed to Lying and Deceit To be plain and true hearted in our Words and Promises according to the simplicity of the Gospel So that when the Apostle bids us mind such things as are true it is all one with his Exhortation Ephes 4.25 Wherefore putting away Lying speak every Man the Truth with his Neighbour For God being a God of Truth and not capable of deceiving Men either in his Words or Promises he would have Men to be like unto him And this Duty is necessary upon these Two Accounts 1. From the Conformity and Likeness it hath to the Nature of God God is represented in the Old Testament by the Holy One of Israel that cannot Lie and in the New the Apostle Argues from the Immutability of the Nature of God that it is impossible for him to Lie or to Deceive For to Lie is a Weakness Sickness and Imperfection of the Mind which God cannot be subject to No Power or Force can constrain him to do otherwise than his Nature wills and his Counsels and Will being directed by an Infinite Goodness and Wisdom there cannot be in him any Variableness Inconstancy or shadow of turning And he is most like unto God who stands Confidently and Immutably to what is True and Right For Truth deriving from an Infinite and Almighty Being is bold and takes place when Deceit and Falshood is put to its Shifts and runs into holes hating the light Therefore the wiser Heathens used to say That to speak the Truth and to do Good were things that made us most like to God And most certain it is that the more a Man swerves and declines from Truth the further he is removed from a Participation of the Nature of God Hence when the Jews would not believe our Saviour who testified that Truth he had received of God he tells them John 8.44 They were of their Father the Devil who was a Lyar and the Father of it He was the first Inventer and the first Author of Lies in the World Therefore says Christ when he speaketh a Lie he speaketh of his own 'T is none of God's Creation but an effect which he is the sole Cause and Author and Original of When that foul Spirit had once disjoined and separated himself from God then he began to Lie and to Deceive and taught Men to do so too which shewed the weakness of his Nature when once it became uncentred and unhinged from that Stable and Unchangeable Being who is Truth it self 2. Truth is the Bond and Foundation of all Civil Society There is no Commerce or Intercourse between Men in the World without this And hence it is that a Liar is banished and excluded from all sober Society and the Reason is because he destroys that which God and Nature ordained should preserve and maintain a Correspondence one with another Therefore the very Formality that is the Nature of a Lie includes in it a piece of Injustice and is a real Injury done to another For Words and Expressions being only the significations of our Minds one to another every Man has a right of judging and understanding by these what is signified to him Now when a Man tells a Lie he imposes upon his Neighbour and deprives him of his Right by making him to believe quite contrary to what the things are Therefore our Blessed Saviour tells us That for every idle Word that Men shall speak they shall be accountable Mat. 12.36 which is not meant of every impertinent or useless but every vain or false Word i. e. for every Lie And there is a great deal of Reason for this because he that Lies to another not only betrays the Effeminateness and Weakness of his Nature but is really injurious to his Neighbour and destroys and undermines that which is the common Cement and Bond by which Societies are incorporated together Wherefore let it be every Man's Care to avoid all Fraud and Dissimulation in his Words and Actions For nothing is more unbecoming a Man much more undecent and odious is it in a Christian who professes a Religion that owns the greatest simplicity and openness and freedom and plain-heartedness in the World Our Blessed Saviour tho' he many times prudently avoided Captious and Ensharing Questions yet when he was demanded an Account of that for which he came into the World i. e. whether he were the Christ or the true Messiah he owns it though he knew this very Truth would cost him his Life When the Cause of God and a good Conscience lies at stake then Truth must in a particular manner shew it self For to Dissemble and to be False to this is to betray the Religion that we profess Therefore we find among the Catalogue of those that are excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven are all such as love and make a Lie Revel 22.15 not only such as make Deceits and Dissimulations to betray the Truth but such as love and delight in such Treacherous Actions And in express terms God Almighty Threatens all Liars Revel 21.8 That they shall have their Portion in the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone Because Falshood is not only contrary to the Nature of God and sinks us into a Condition the furthest removed from him but destroys the Interest of Christianity which requires in all its Professors the greatest Truth and Faithfulness in all their Words and Actions Christ came to promote a Fair and Innocent Nature in the World which cannot consist with those Blemishes and Spots that attend Lying and Deceit Truth is plain and easie but a Lie is crooked and perverse and made up of many windings and turnings So that he that considers the Nature of God who is absolute Truth the Interest of Religion and the Good of Mankind will not think such an Exhortation as this to be unseasonable but will with all diligence pursue and follow such things as are true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatsoever things are honest Besides what we have here discoursed of Virtue in general we may further Note that these and such like are the Moral Furniture of our Souls they are the Transcripts and Derivations of the Nature of God which however by a long Degeneracy they seem to be worn out and the Traces of them in many to be scarce visible yet there is such a Cognation and Congruity between them and the Nature of our Souls that they are ready to embrace whenever duly offered to them After having advised to things true the Apostle comes next to whatsoever things are honest which is not to be taken in a strict signification as Honesty is a part of Justice for that St. Paul mentions afterwards but the word honest here must be taken in a larger signification for whatever is becoming So the Word in the Original imports