Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	doctrine_n	spirit_n	word_n	4,112	5	4.1321	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61859	Lessons moral and Christian, for youth and old age in two sermons preach'd at Guildhall Chappel, London : chiefly intended for the use of this city / by John Stryp ...	Strype, John, 1643-1737.	1699 (1699)	Wing S6022; ESTC R33818	27,625	134

him beyond all the bounds of Reason and Decency and hurry him away into Transports Which commonly make a Man utter many blasphemous Oaths and Curses take up wicked and ungodly Resolutions and put him forward to unchristian Revenges and implacable Animosities This also an Aged Man must take heed of There must also be a Temper in his Desires of Earthly things It is highly disbecoming a Man that is going into another World to be griping and scraping for the Things of this To oppress and vex his Creditors his Tenants his Underlings to prog and cark for Wealth and to fill his Bags and to labour night and day for more and more of these fading Riches and in the mean time to neglect the true Riches that will make a Man rich to God and furnish him with Treasures that will do him good in another World Thus the Aged must be Temperate The Word indeed signifies and is often translated Sober and is the same Word with that in the sixth Verse where Young Men are exhorted to be Sober-minded It seems Sobriety is a Duty necessary to be urged both upon Old and Young That is both ought to lay Restraint upon their Lusts and Passions to govern their Appetites to keep themselves within due Bounds and to be temperate in all things Which is the true Notion of Sobriety For the Old as well as the Young are apt to fly out and to go beyond their due limits that God and Nature hath set them And so to draw Misery Trouble Guilt and Destruction in the end upon themselves That is the Third The Aged must be Temperate or Sober The three other Directions for Aged Men that remain do more particularly respect them as they are Professors of Christian Religion Which mainly consists in Faith in Charity in Patience And therefore Aged Christians should be sound in all these Graces Age hath rendred them frail and weak in their Bodily Strength but they must not be so in their Graces but SOUND in them And the longer they live to the more Healthfulness in Spirit and Soundness in all Christian Vertues they must aspire And especially they must be sound in these three I. In Faith That is in the Christian Doctrine They must hold fast Christ's Truth that which is call'd Sound Doctrin in the first Verse of this Chapter This they must Hold fast and maintain in their old Age and not let go those holy Doctrines that they have been taught that Form of sound Words wherein they have been instructed And not as some are wont to do in their elder Years to Apostatize and Backslide and to forsake the ancient Truth for new Doctrines and be carried away with errors by the subtile Invention of Deceivers and false Prophets that come in Sheeps Cloathing But the Aged who are come to Maturity of Years should be of Mature Judgment and to be too well grounded and principled in the Truth to be inticed away by such as lay in wait to deceive unstable Souls Thus the Aged must be sound in Faith Or else he must be sound in Faith taking Faith to signify more particularly Faith and Trust in God When Age comes upon us and various Infirmities Pains and Sicknesses attend it and Troubles and Cares do now more than ever oppress our Minds and the Reflexions it may be upon the infinite Miscarriages of our past Lives deject us what need have we then of this Faith in God to enable us to rely upon him and his Goodness and his Promises What need to put a firm Trust and Confidence in him To have an Eye of Faith to see him that is invisible and a Hand of Faith to take fast hold of him and not to let him go I mean to be possest with a good and well grounded Assurance that he will not leave us in our Old Age nor lay to our charge the Sins and Follies of our past Life since we have repented of them and forsaken them And this is to sound be in Faith II. In Charity Aged Men above all who are going into another World must not harbour Malice in their Hearts against any but reduce themselves to an hearty Love and Good-will to every Man universally The Man of Years must be endued with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Well-pleasedness of Mind to others that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Friendly Affection to Mankind that God hath declared himself to have towards us all For he is going as he hopes to that God And if he be not of that gracious kind Temper that he is of he must never expect to see his Face nor to dwell in his Presence For we must be like him if ever we intend to live with him III. Lastly he must be sound in Patience In Faith in Charity and in Patience Patience in the New Testament often signifies Perseverance in the Faith of Christ and Persistance in well-doing notwithstanding all the Discouragements and Persecutions of an evil World Upholding a Man's self by the strong and vigorous Expectation of the infinite Rewards to be bestowed in God's good Time And this Patience or patient Expectation the Aged should be sound in Waiting for the Time when his God shall call him to himself to bestow upon him a Crown of Life and say to him Well done Good and Faithful Servant enter into the Ioy of thy Lord. He must be sound and strong in this Patience Or else he must be sound in Patience as it importeth a quiet bearing of Sufferings and Pains and Afflictions Which in Old Age are wont to be more and greater than at any other Time He must not be fretful and peevish under the Weakness and Infirmities of Old Age. He must not be angry and displeased and froward under the Calamities that lye upon him but bear them with an even and constant Spirit with Equanimity and Silence not opening his Mouth in Impatience As remembring that it is but the condition of Humane Nature and that it is what comes from God for the Correction of our Faults and for the Exercise of our Patience and the Tryal of our Graces And after this manner should the Aged be sound in Patience And thus I have under the Direction of this excellent Text shewn what that becoming and truly Christian Behaviour is that Men should exercise when Age and Years are come upon them II. I am now to endeavour by Arguments and Considerations to excite the Aged to this wise and good Demeanour And for this purpose I shall lay before them these five or six Things I. Age expects Honour and Reverence to be pay'd it And that deservedly and the Scripture requires it Thou shalt rise up before the hoary Head and honour the Person of the Aged And God did most signally once punish a parcel of loose Youths for despising an aged holy Man and crying to him in Derision Go up thou bald Pate Go up thou bald Pate 2 King ii 23 They were torn in pieces Forty Two

is they must be watchful For so the word also signifies And therefore Watch and be sober are the Phrases that the Scripture puts together as being very near of kin or all one Therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us WATCH and be SOBER So St. Paul And so the Apostle St. Peter Be SOBER be VIGILANT or Watchful But in other places this very Word Be Sober is translated Be watchful So St. Paul exhorts Timothy Watch thou in all things And so St. Peter Watch unto Prayer Where the word Watch is of the same Original with the word Sober in the Text. Hence we may infer That the Meaning of this word and perhaps the chief Meaning and Sense of it relates to Watchfulness A great and a proper Duty and Exercise for Aged Men above all others To watch for their Lord 's Coming whose Time is so near spent in the course of Nature To watch and be in Expectation of their Departure into another World To Watch unto Prayer in the place before mentioned or In Prayers as the Words may be rendred That is to be always praying unto God lifting up their Hearts to him in holy and devout Ejaculations spending much of their Time in converse with their Maker and in earnest Addresses to Him to forgive unto them all their past Errors to beg and implore his Grace to be their Comfort in their old Age and that He would not leave them in the needful time of their Trouble their Sickness their Pain their Dying Hour Again They must be watchful to keep themselves clear and free of Sin to preserve themselves in a holy blameless Behaviour that they may be fit to meet the Lord and to make their personal Appearrance before their Judge which they are so suddenly to do And therefore Let not them sleep as do others but let THEM especially Watch and be Sober as the Apostle advises all Christians 1 Thess. v. 6 This Watchfulness also consists in their diligent Attendance upon all God's holy Ordinances As for Example in a conscientious celebrating of God's Sabbaths resorting unto the Places where his Honour dwelleth with all Devotion and Seriousness of Soul and and there hearing God's Word read and explained by his Ministers with an humble obedient Ear joyning their Hearts and their Mouths in the Prayers and Supplications that are put up there for our selves and for all the Wants and Necessicities of our Fellow-Christians in an universal spreading Charity And as often as the holy Communion is administred repairing unto God's Table with Earnest Minds and holy Affections to partake of that comfortable Commemoration of Christ's Death and Passion whereby he hath procured of his Father the Pardon and Remission of our Sins to our endless Comfort and Benefit And by these Ordinances we draw near to God and acquaint our selves with Him against the Time we hope for ever to dwell with Him and to enjoy His Blessed Face In these Ordinances we hold a Communion with God and God with us and we do accustom our selves to those very Exercises that if ever God vouchsafe to bring us to Glory shall be in effect our great Employment there Thus the Aged Men should Watch. And what a happy thing would it be for them if Death should find them thus Watching They should and I hope they do consider that God will e're long send for them And therefore it should be their Endeavour that whensoever He doth send He may find them upon their Knees or at their Devotion or busied in some holy good charitable or at least warrantable Exercise And this is the first great Point of that Behaviour that is so sutable to the Aged That the Aged Men be SOBER or Watchful II. The Aged Man must be Grave that is his Carriage and outward Deportment must be managed in that Decency and Reverence as may bespeak the inward Goodness of his Mind He must so demean himself that it may appear That there is within him a true Sense of God and Goodness and an Aversion to every thing that is foul unjust and dishonest All Lightness Idleness Vanity of Behaviour Frothiness of Speech Playing Toying Sporting Chamberring and Wantonness in Words and Actions and such like so contrary to the Decorum of their Age these things are by all means to be avoided by Men of Age and Years so dissonant to Gravity There must be a Severity in their Behaviour They must not endure to see or to hear any thing that is immodest or unseemly much more that is vile and wicked And if they are Magistrates they must shew their Dislike of it by punishing and correcting it If of more ordinary Rank and Quality they must reprove it or withdraw themselves from it or give some plain Evidence of their Disallowance and Disapprovement of it There is a Lightness and Frothiness of Conversation which this present Generation of Ours is too much addicted to And it is this in a great measure more than most are aware of that doth so indispose and prejudice Men against Religion which indeed will not away with it For that is a Serious and Solid thing It will not allow of that Airiness of Behaviour that Vanity and Idleness of Speech and Trivial Conversation that is in too great Fashion and Vogue among us It was a Saying of one of the Fathers Even the Sportings of Christians ought to have a kind of Seriousness in them Every Man should do that which becomes him And there is nothing becomes a Christian but what is virtuous what is just what is innocent and what is modest and what hath the stamp of Truth and Goodness on it A Heathen gave us this Advice Reckon that nothing becomes you but what is good And it is the Apostle's admirable Councel to his Philippians in the Conclusion of his Epistle to them Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are HONEST The word in the Text i. e. Whatsoever things are Grave or Decent or Agreeable to your most holy Profession Think on these things This then ought to be the Deportment of all Christians all that have taken on them Christ's holy Name but chiefly all Elderly People Their Years call upon them to be Grave countenancing what is Good discountenancing what ever is Evil. Which will shew the inward Good and Godly Temper of their Minds and Spirits The aged Men must be Grave or Serious that is their second Qualification III. They must be Temperate An Aged Man must be a Man of Temper Temper in his Passions He must not be testy morose and froward a Vice to which Old Men are wont to be addicted He must not be a Demea as he in Terence a peevish fretful captious Man He must not be a Nabal as he in the Book of Samuel such a Son of Belial that a Man cannot speak to him There must be a Temper also in his Wrath. He must not let that impotent Passion rule him and carry