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	lie_n	3,415	5	9.0726	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95723	Two assize sermons preached at Bridgnorth for the county of Salop in the year 1657. The first, upon Psalm 58. verse 1. Doe you indeed speak righteousnesse, o congregation? Doe ye judge uprightly, o ye sonnes of men? The second, upon Psalm 37. verse 37. Marke the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace? / By Mich. Thomas; rector of Stockton in the same county.	Thomas, Michael, rector of Stockton.	1659 (1659)	Wing T970; Thomason E1790_1; ESTC R209682	31,232	144

what a slave is that man whose heart is challenged by so many masters Such an one cannot pretend to Jacob's title to be Homo Simplex a perfect single-hearted man He is rather Homo Multiplex St. James his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not reach Him He is more then a double-minded man He hath an heart for every lust a new God and a new Religion when soever the sway and humour of the times shall require it of him Upon those words of the Lord by his prophet Joel Turn unto me with all your heart devout Bernard hath noted thus Corporis conversio si sola fuerit nulla erit If the body only turn to God and not the heart there is no conversion It is but the form of Conversion there is nothing of truth in it when there are pretensions to godlynesse but no power He is a miserable man that contents himselfe in the outward formalities of religion and neither knows nor regards his heart Bernard applyed this Note to his monks upon a Fast-day and took occasion to reprove them for their hypocrisie Manet tonsura as he goes on yee continue your shavings yee change not your garment yee observe your rules for fasting and your hours for prayer and yet the Lord cryes from heaven Cor vestrum longè est à Me Your heart notwithstanding all this is far from me The best discovery we can make of the integrity and sincerity of our hearts is to observe the bent and sway of those foure chiefe affections Love Feare Joy and Griefe and see whether God or the World have most of these and accordingly we may judge our selves whether we are true Converts or Perfect men But because the nature of the root is best discerned by the fruit which appears on the branches be pleased that the discourse may passe from the first mark of perfection which I call'd perfection in the root the perfection of the heart to the second which is Integritas Oris the Integrity of the Mouth or words and no mark can be more proper then this or more naturally consequent Our blessed Saviour hath given us the rule Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh In the 32 d. Psalm David pronounces a blessednesse upon that man in whose Spirit there is no guile And there are good Expositours conceive this guile to consist in and about the duty of Repentance and especially in the covering of sinne as when men shall cover their extortions and oppressions by building an Hospitall and when they shall cover all the Week-sins with a Sabbaths solemnity Such is sometimes the folly of Hypocrisy that it will strive to cover sin though with a Net which every man sees thorow they will have such mean and pittifull pretences for their unjust actions whereas a perfect-hearted man is serious in the search of his conscience and he will take knowledge of his sins before they discover themselves he will acknowledge his riot and voluptuousnesse before he burn in a Feaver occasioned by his surfeits He will acknowledge his wantonnesse and licentiousnesse before he comes under the anguish and smart of corrosives He will acknowledge his pride and wastfullnesse before he lye in prison for debt The perfect man doth not seek his sins in his belly nor in his bones but in his conscience He unfolds that ripps up that and enters into the privatest and remotest corners thereof And he that doth not thus there is dolus in Spiritu There is guile in his Spirit and he hath no title to that blessednesse which David was pronouncing So that if there be Veritas in Corde Truth in the heart there will be also Veritas in Ore Truth in the mouth which being the second mark of a perfect man give me leave to lay it open to you The perfection of the Mouth hath a double prospect it looks towards God and towards man God shall have His glory in the Confession of his sinne and man shall have his right in speaking the truth Among those marks which David gives of that happy man who shall dwell in the holy hill of the Lord this is one He speaketh the truth in his heart And so in the 14 of the Revel v. 5. those blessed persons who are said to follow the Lamb are thus described In their mouth was found no guile Truth as it is a most excellent vertue so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies Philo the most sacred possession pretious and necessary as the Sunne to the world When the question was put to Pythagoras What that was in the doing whereof men might be like unto God he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they speak the truth It will be a good interpretation of that command of our blessed Saviour Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect when as He is truth so we be alwayes carefull to speak the truth from our hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the Heathen by the light of nature could conclude that it was a servile un-ingenuous humour to lye and to speak falsely And we have some impression of it still remaining in us of all reproaches we can least brook that Thou liest How many quarrells hath it occasion'd How much blood hath bin spilt about it But truly 't is sad and strange that men will not endure to be charged with lying and yet make no conscience of lying that they should take up that part of the Heathens morality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To speak the truth is an evidence of a noble constant well composed spirit and desert the other part of it by a deficiency in their practice in yielding themselves up to tell lies for advantage Some Divines have moved and debated these two Cases Whether if a man be examined before a Competent Judge he may not lye to preserve himselfe or his Friend from the penalty of the Law And 't is answer'd in the negative He may not lye There can no case be put in which it may be lawfull for any man to lye to any man not to a midnight not to a noon-thiefe that assaults his house or his person he may not lye And although many have put names of disguise upon such practises and call them Equivocations and Reservations yet they are all children of the same Father the Devill who is the father of lies The other Case is Whether if a man be examined before an incompetent Judge he may not equivocate and prevaricate with Him And 't is answer'd thus that if he do speak he must speak the truth They allow that to an incompetent Judge that hath no legall power to examine him he may be silent without sinne but to a competent Judge 't is an indefensible sinne either to be silent or to depose an untruth And upon this account since it is so clearly sinfull in a witnesse either to prevaricate or to depose an untruth I submit it to your grave Judgements whether it be not highly