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	religion_n	true_a	4,673	5	5.0261	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65846	A serious exhortation to an holy life, or, A plea for the absolute necessity of inherent righteousness in those that hope to be saved by Tho. Wadsworth.	Wadsworth, Thomas, 1630-1676.	1660 (1660)	Wing W190; ESTC R23587	25,975	74

I say or write I will to the best of my understanding make it to be a righteousness neither more nor less than what Jesus Christ hath made it nor will I shew thee any thing but what I will give thee sufficient Scripture-proof for What sayest thou now wilt thou promise What dost thou stick at man Remember what thou hast confessed already Didst thou not confess just now that thou didst verily beleeve that thou canst not possibly bee saved except thou shalt become more righteous than any Pharisee and doest thou now doubt whether it is best for thee to endeavour to exceed them What art thou resolved to sit down short of heaven Ah sinner this is not ignorantly but wilfully to destroy thy self Tell mee then wilt thou resolve to live a more righteous life or wilt thou not thou dying man or woman either resolve or read no more I profess I did not write these lines to dally with thy soul if I had thought that all my Readers would have proved so obstinate I would not have lost that little time I spent in writing what thou now art vewing nor created thee the trouble of so much reading Let God bear witness betwixt thy soul and mine whether I am not more desirous to have thee saved than thou art to save thy self The Sinners Resolve Why then I do resolve as God shall help mee I will endeavour for the future with all my soul and strength to seek that righteousness what ever it bee you shall discover from the Word of God to bee his Will and so my duty Nay I further do resolve That neither flesh nor blood nor any sin nor lust or worldly interest whatever shall hinder mee from seeking a portion in the Kingdome of my Saviour Bear witness O God I am in as good earnest as ever I was in all my life I sayest thou so Let mee then tell thee for thy comfort thou art not far from the Kingdome of God But to keep thee fast to thy resolution that thou mayest neither give thy God nor mee the slip I do here adjure thee by thy God and Saviour by thy immortal and precious soul by Heaven the Crown and all the weights of glory that are there yea by every thing that is or should bee dear and precious to thee not to dare to draw back and eat thy words again And to tye thee yet up faster to thy resolved vow read Heb. 10.38 But the just shall live by faith and if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him Oh that now it might bee spoken of thee what follows in the next verse 39. But wee are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that beleeve to the saving of the soul Mark finner if thou drawst back from so just righteous and holy resolution thou hast made thou wilt fall into perdition if thou holdest on thou art passing forward to the salvation of thy soul if hell doth not affright thee let heaven perswade thee to keep fast to what thou hast just now promised The second part of the Text lyes in the discovery of two particulars 1 Wherein did the righteousness of the Pharisees consist which thou must resolve to exceed 2 What is that righteousness of life that will set thee above the Pharisees and put thee into a saving condition Of the first What the Pharisees righteousness was 1 The Pharisees was one of the strictest sect or the most precise society of men among the Jews they were most nice observers of all the outward points of worship according to the Law of Moses and therefore had the esteem of their Country-men for the most Religious people amongst them I know thou wilt beleeve the Apostle Paul if hee tells thee so much for hee was one of them himself before hee left them by being converted to Jesus Christ Take his own words Act. 26.4 5. My manner of life from my youth which was at first among mine own Nation at Jerusalem know all the Jews which knew mee from the beginning if they would testifie that after the most straightest sect of our Religion I lived a Pharisee Mark that well the Pharisees sayes Paul were Religious yea straightly Religious yea most straightly Religious that is as to the outward parts of the Jewish Religion which consisted in being natural-born Jews children of beleeving Abraham admitted into the visible Church by Circumcision the eighth day in being constant Preachers or Hearers in their Synagogues But all this was not enough to speak them righteous enough for the Kingdome of heaven for remember Except thy righteousness exceed theirs thou canst in no case enter Christ hath said it and thou must beleeve it 2 The Pharisees were right in their judgements in many or most of the practical truths in Religion they held that the onely true God of Israel was to bee worshipped That it was a most hainous sin to theeve to commit murder or adultery or to forswear a mans self to lye or bear false witness against a neighbour or to bee drunk or to bee a glutton This must bee all true of them that they held these things as sins yea and that they did forbear those grosser sins I prove it thus 1 Because Jesus Christ permitted his own followers to hear them preach yea and bid them do what they taught Matth. 23.1 2. Then spake Jesus to the multitude and to his Disciples saying The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat the meaning is that they were Preachers of the Commands of God delivered by Moses all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not after their works But secondly I prove that they abstained from grosser sins at least to the outward act 1 They abstained from drunkenness and gluttony I gather from that blasphemous reproach they cast upon our blessed Saviour in calling him a Winebibber and a Glutton which speaks that they accounted them most disgraceful sins 2 If they had not abominated the act of murder adultery perjury with drunkenness and the like and so refrained from them in their lives it were impossible they could ever have got that repute amongst the Jewes of being the most strict religious sort of people in all their Country who would ever have thought a society of Drunkards or Gluttons or Whoremongers or perjured persons a strict religious sect as the Apostle Paul confesseth they were reputed From this that hath been said thou mayest easily see that thou mayest bee neither Rogue nor Whore nor Theef nor Drunkard nor Lyar and yet bee out of a state of salvation as these Scribes and Pharisees were though guilty of none of these sins 3 These Pharisees were more righteous yet for they were strict observers of the Sabbath day so far as to abstain from all bodily labour and to attend on the worship of God in reading praying preaching or expounding the Word of God this was their Sabbath dayes imployment in their