Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	false_a	know_v	true_a	4,114	5	4.5846	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28913	The dutie and danger of swearing opened in a sermon preached at York, February 3, 1655, the day of swearing the lord maior / by Edward Bowles ...	Bowles, Edward, 1613-1662.	1655 (1655)	Wing B3871; ESTC R31277	20,505	28

totum sermonis tenorem clausis oculis praetereunt The Anabaptists by occasion of this Scripture discover together with their perversnesse grosse ignorance while they frowardly urge one word neglecting the whole frame of the discourse It is said our Anabaptists if they will admit of that name which they must rather than we to gratifie them with the name of the baptized Churches deny our own Baptisme allow of oathes It is well if it proceed from a soundnesse and not from a latitude of Principles But by denying the use of them God loses honour and men come short many times of truth and justice It is true if men were as they ought yea and nay might suffice instead of Oathes Omnis fidelis sermo pro juramento est saith Hierome but we must take men as they are with their defects of faith truth and knowledge and the remedy of those defects which is an Oath must still continue 2. But because where there is one too scrupulous there are many too profuse in the matter of oathes a severe reprehension belongs to those who observe no rule in swearing such are they who sweare by the Creatures light bread or any thing that comes next hand whereby a man first abuses his own reason for what ridiculous folly is it to call inanimate Creatures to attest any thing what madnesse to curse ourselves by our blessings Secondly he abuses the Name of God which ought to be interposed in an oath by substituting any other thing in his room which there is nothing in Heaven or Earth fit to supplie And thirdly he abuses the Creature it self by imploying it to an end dishonourable to its Creator an use to which it never was appointed and this may well be part of that burthen under which the Creature groaneth and travelleth in pain as the Apostle speaks Rom. 1. 22. and of that vanitie of sin and trouble which it is subjected to To swear by Creatures below our selves is to under-value our selves For men verily swear by the greater Hebr. 6. 16. To swear by Creatures above our selves as glorified Saints and Angels is to overvalue them for what or who are they that they should be to us in the room of God They also who regard not truth judgement and righteousnesse in their oathes what reproof is sharp enough for them To swear falsly by the Name of the God of truth how great a provocation is it Those that swear falsly that is either that which they know to be false or that which they know not to be truly are highly guilty of offence against the God of truth whose eyes are upon the truth Ierem. 5. 3. and also against humane society which is knit together by the bands of truth and justice The Aegyptians had so reverent an esteem of their Idols which were but vanity and a lie that if any were found to swear falsly by them they were adjudged worthy of death and shall we make light of abusing the name of the living and true God There is no person of honour and honesty but would look upon it with highest indignation to be called to attest an untruth what shall we then think of the God of truth will he not be very jealous for his honour in such a case It is sad to see and consider how often men are produced to swear contradictions where one must needs be guilty of false-hood in swearing unless both parts of a contradiction can be found true which is impossible And that which adds to the mischiefe is that unrighteousness is bound up with untruth in the most false Oathes and so both Tables are broken at once Sometimes men swear falsly out of malice and revenge but it is a strange revenge to destroy a mans reputation to wound his conscience to hazard his salvation that he may require another Oh what folly and madness is in the hearts of the sons of men while they live and after they go to the dead as the wise man complaines Eccles. 9. 3. Others swear falsly out of a covetous principle loving the wages of unrighteousness as Balaam did but what profit is it to win the world and lose a mans own soul saith Christ who knew well enough what the worth of both was Matth. 16. 26. such a man is like to come to Iudas his reckoning who dearly earned the reward of iniquity Act. 1. 18. Others who think it base to forswear themselves for money will yet do it out of respect to a Superiour or kindnesse to a friend but for a man to pawn his soul in courtesie is madnesse and not kindnesse and most desperate folly for one to lay down his own conscience or comfort as a Bridge to make passage for another to his worldly advantages But I shut up this admonition with that of the Lord by the Prophet Zechariab 8. 17. Let nme of you imagine evill in your hearts against his neighbour and love no false Oath for these things I hate saith the Lord Odium terminatur ad non esse Destruction is the fruit of hatred And lastly the number of them that swear but not in judgement is exceeding great alas how few are there that understand an Oath and fewer that consider it Those that swear in common conversation certainly swear not in judgement they do it so frequently so sleightly that their understanding cannot exercise any deliberate act about it they take so little notice of it that they will hardly be brought to acknowledge they have sworn if they confesse it they will tell you it was before they were aware and so are found witnesses against themselves that they swear not in judgement but if every idle word is to be accounted for as our Saviour tels us Matth. 12. 36. what shall we think of idle oathes which signifie nothing but a profane and vain spirit will not they inflame the reckoning exceedingly The sons of men especially great and noble persons cannot endure to have their Names tossed up and down among vain men or used upon sleight occasions and will no the God of heaven take it in greater indignation that his Name which is great wonderfull holy should be made triviall or common by the frequent usurpations of ignorant and wicked men certainly he will not hold them guiltlesse that thus take hi● Name in vain It is not the plea of custome that will excuse no● yet extenuate the sin It is true some places are so profane the swearing is become the very dialect of the Town or Family where they dwell and shall they escape by the commonnesse of their iniquity no surely neither nature nor custome which is the second nature are tolerable excuses for any evill but rather aggravations of it Sin is not the lesse but rather the more to be bewailed because of the deep root it hath in our corrupt natures In this glasse it was that David and Paul saw their sins to be above measure sinfull Psal. 51. and Rom. 7. And the like may be