Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	father_n	life_n	way_n	6,604	5	5.4332	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35189	The young mans monitor, or, A modest offer toward the pious, and vertuous composure of life from youth to riper years by Samuel Crossman.	Crossman, Samuel, 1624?-1684.; Crossman, Samuel, 1624?-1684. Young mans meditation.	1664 (1664)	Wing C7276; ESTC R24109	112,999	295

wherein every creature so justly oweth it self to glorifie that God which gave you your life and brea●h You came hither as the sick man un●o change of air for recovery and cure You came hither to imploy an immortal soul in the study of Eternity and in a spirit of enlargement and nobleness to look after those future things which shortly shall come to pass In plainest terms You came hither to settle the great case of your Souls heaven-ward on such solid terms that neither the troubles of life nor the very stroke of death should ever hereafter be able to amaze you You came hither to seek the Lord and his face reconciliation and communion with him whom you must enjoy or dye and fall for ever Oh dear Youths these are the great ends of life if you can apply your tender minds too tender I fear to close far with such ponderous matters yet these and no less than these are the sacred ends of life and your just duty if you can receive it And who indeed can have the heart to refuse or wave the righteous pleasure of the Lord herein Is it worth the time to design so earnestly as most do such inferiour things as Honours Estates and Friends here And shall it not much more become us to rouze up our minds to nobler things things worth the thoughts worthy of the cares of an immortal Soul How we may most silially and fully serve the glory of our great Creator How we may most surely escape the snares of death And in the end inherit the long long'd for crown of life If others can find no better imployment than with Claudius Souldiers to gather Cockles or with the poysonous Spider to make sorry traps to catch silly worthless Flies in If they will needs as too too many daily do with the Serpent go upon their belly and lick the dust unworthily chaining down an heaven-born spirit to poor unsutable and earthly things Yet let them be no Presidents unto you Call you upon your souls as that holy man did to remember their Country and Kindred above God hath given you the wings of nobler desires heavenward oh clip not those golden wings but make your flight as th● Dove unto the Arke Walk you in Gods name in the way that is most excellent and covet you the best things Thirdly You have now understood both where you are and what you have to do It ●ests still thirdly that you carefully consider by what true means these great ends are to be at length attained and enjoyed The glory of God the glory of God it is most mens language few mens care The persecutor in Isaiah could say Let God be glorified when he for his part went about whatever he could by his bitterness against Gods people to dishonour him Heaven and happiness are easily pretended to but not so easily enjoyed Neglect and slightiness in the means of our salvation is the Epidemical disease here we commonly stumble and fall Most men could soon be perswaded to like of the end but they can fearce away with the means Well the c●se is however stated unalterably to our hands whether we like or like it not Our way of coming to the blessed favour of God and oh that our hearts may be solemn indeed in these solemn things our way I say again is that new and living way by Christ and the Covenant of free grace He is the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by him Our way unto any sweet communion with the Lord or consequently glory in the end for our own dear souls is by the real renewing of our inner man and sound conversion toward God For what communion thinks any man is light likely to have with darkness Or what fellowship if we will needs remain in our sins can Christ have with Belial We are now come to the great knot that sore difficulty wherein your present thoughts should be so justly taken up whereupon the Crisis and decision of your future state so certainly will depend Oh! that the Lord may please to bring you under the bond of his Covenant and make you partakers of this great this blessed and honourable change from nature to grace from the power of Satan to the Kingdom of God Knowledge and education may make an external Professor But it is only Regeneration that makes a true Christian. Conversion we may all with blushing confess with many it is plainly despised with most it is secre●ly disregarded as a matter of great and deep thoughts of heart and so we set up the exteriour prof●ssion of the name of God without any serious travel in it But this will serve no mans turn it is a truth shall live when we are dead No Regeneration no Salvation Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God This is that ingrafting of the wild branch into the good Olive that it may bring forth better fruit This is as the first Resurrection unto life which must forerun any ascension unto glory This is that fresh and lively drawing of the glorious Image of God upon those dark hearts which lay before as the Earth in its first Chaos void and without form or beauty Oh! that men would forbear their hard thoughts and censures of God and the sweet workings of his grace There may be many weaknesses even in gracious hearts according to the frailty of humane nature while they are under the hand of God in the transacting of this great and unusual work There may and will be sore throwes and pangs accompanying of it whereever it is truly wrought But still these things need not be matter of reviling matter of distaste or discouragement unto any What God himself sowes is here sown in weakness And as for the thing it self this new birth this new life this renewing of the inward man must indispensably and certainly be if we desire any part or place in that new Ierusalem which is above This is the very posture of things before you these are those ancient Land-marks which none may remove What oh what manner of persons then ought you to be What continual and serious care are you obliged henceforth to take lest you should do the work of the Lord and your own souls slightly CHAP. III. Counsel and Advice propounded for the right Guidance and Improvement of the Young Mans present Condition to his Own and Others Solid Comfort YOu cannot now account as too many do gracious Counsel in the Lord either needless or burdensom No no it is as an excellent Oyle that needs break no mans head The needful and happy Clue to carry us through all our present Labyrinths The true Index of a sweet and hopeful disposicion So saies the Historian shall any man become surely eminent and prosperous if he be deliberate and willing to steer his course by the compass of Good Counsel It is the neglect of this that

casts so many sad shipwracks upon the shore Headiness rusheth on and is confident but never prospereth There are and will be those heart breaking grones in another world which may justly endear good Counsel to us while we have a day to live How have I will the poor damned one day say how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof Dear Youths stop not your ear as the deaf Adder to the instructions of wisdom let them be unto you as the weights to the Clock that set it into an orderly motion of going As the welcome friendly gales of wind which carry the ship that might otherwaies have lain becalmed the fairer the faster and straiter toward its desired haven It is a spur to quicken our pace a guide to direct our way which the wise in heart will esteem as the Poet of old A sacred thing of great safety and usefulness to all The Counsels and requests I have now more particularly to lay before you for the guidance of your youth are of a twofold nature 1. The first relating more immediately to Religion between God and your own souls 2. The other to your relative condition and converse which you are entring into here with men Though therein also Religion is still greatly concerned In both I shall endeavour all plainess and practicalness and not to cast in matters of doubt and division Such things are at any time more ready to humour the wrath of man than to work the righteousness of God The Temple is then best built when there is the least noise of knocking o● hammers heard about it It will be your part and that which God himself will look for at your hands not barely to read or to rest your selves in the verbal commendation of pious truths which nature is very desirous to sit down upon as they on this side Iordan and go no farther toward the Holy Land you are to compose your selves forthwith to enter upon the real practice of the good will of God concerning you And oh that the Lord who alone teacheth to profit would please to give these sorry Lines any place of abode in your hearts to your souls just furtherance and edification in the Lord. In the great Concernments of Religion as Man is far the noblest Creature in the world So is Religion still the highest enoblement that he is possibly capable of A right understanding in it a wise and cordial consistency with it that we may not in effect dishonour what we seem to respect by an undue professing of it these are mercies of an high nature and come only from the Father of lights The heart that is thus upright with God carries alwaies a great presence and blessing with it The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth and he will shew himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are thus perfect toward him We may here safely sing with the Psalmist Blessed is every one be he never so mean otherwaies that feareth the Lord and thus walketh in his waies The Heathen though wandring in too much darkness have yet usually had so high a sense of this as ascribe all their welfare to their fidelity and care in their Religion Thus the great Orator even boasteth of his Romans that it was neither their Policy nor their Strength but their Piety which became the advancement of their Nation Lo here how they who had not the Law became yet a Law to themselves oh let us be provoked to a better emulation by them But I shall endeavour to be yet more particular with you that you may not on either hand as too many in these perillous daies are sadly sound to do miscarry in these tremendous matters of Religion First then Entertain from your youth up pious and reverent thoughts of God live in the constant acknowledgement of him in ●ll your waies let your hearts dwell in the religious sense of his Deity his Holiness and Omnisciency and they shall lay a divine weight upon both heart and life It is a fundamental principle which God himself stands much upon He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him In the Old Testament we read The fool and never any but the fool hath said in heart there is no God And in the New Testament the Apostle tels us of some that were without God in the world Not that God intends to let them so escape and pass away No no though they would have nothing ●o do with God God hath yet something to do with them but the Scripture thus records them for practical Atheists against God because they care not to know or interest themselves by true grace in him But as for you see that you set the Lord alwaies at your right hand lest at ●ny time you offend ag●inst him Live continually as in his sight for the truth is you and all your waies are naked and open before him Harbour not that thought in your mind venture not upon that action though never so seemingly secret in your life which you would be ashamed to own or avouch as yours before the Lord. Still meditate the Omnisciency and greatness of the presence in which we alwaies all of us are and how all our present waies will we ●ill we must one ●ay abide the touchstone of ● publick ●id at the Bar of God Choose him in your Youth and he shall be a God ●ll-sufficient unto you through your w●o●e life Yet rest not your selves too much on this general reverence toward God but modestly press after the most particular and filial knowledge of him You may freely 〈◊〉 as Moses without offence I beseech thee shew me thy glory He is that God in whom you live and have your being the God of all your mercies and good things with whom if ever you become happy you are to live to all Eternity You cannot sure you cannot but holily desire the utmost acquaintance before hand with him How earnestly how affectionately was this pious study recommended in the Primitive times Their Language me thinks might even enfl●me us I testifie saies Lactantius I proclaim it as far as ever I can make this voice of mine to be heard I declare to all the world that this is our great Maxime and Principle the true Knowledge and Worship of God it is the just sum of all Wisdom This this is that the Philosophers so anxiously sought af●er but poor men they groped in the dark and could never find it Dear Youths you are willing to learn and gain acquaintance with men Oh! be ye not strangers unto God I commend and leave it with you under this great assurance It would most certainly become life eternal to any of you thus to know the only true God and him whom he hath sent Iesus Christ. Secondly Let

God and the rare glory that is visible and transparent in them At other times of History and the pleasing Records so serviceable to the enlarging and setling of wisdom that are found therein But above all he delights to fix most upon his own duty and the Lords mercies in Christ that he may be a frequent remembrancer to himself in them He hath heard that his speech it is his peculiar Excellency above the beasts of the field and he dares not imbase it to things so unbecoming so far below him He is modestly silent while the Ancient are before him waiting for their words as for the dew And when at any time he hath just occasion to speak his Motto and Maxime is Not how much but how well His words are alwaies free from Assentation he flatters no man Free from Moroseness he causelesly offendeth no man Free from Affectation he brings them not forth for vain glory but for use The care that he bestows upon his speech is plainly this That it may be truly accented with Discretion uttered with Modesty seasoned with Grace continually shedding and sending forth a sweet odour wherever he becomes He easily perswades himself That Tongue would scarce be fit to praise God in heaven which hath been used to filthy and light words here on earth 5. Not one that is ever found in a lie Oh! no Truth is alwaies lovely falshood odious Where the tongue is false to the heart the heart is surely false to it selfe false to God The Lord accepts it as a letter in that sacred name whereby he is pleased to be known to the Sons of men That he is A God of Truth And a Lie whatever excuses and pretensions it may have as it is never wanting that way yet we know its kindred and whence it comes It is the base born of Satan He is a Lyar and the Father of it Oh! that we may all take heed how we nurse his brats in our bosomes The way of lying It is a short-lived cheat where the deceit when all is done will quickly put forth its blushing face and to our shame appear The Liar say the Learned among the Jews he may vapour a while but he hath no legs whereon to travel long It is a very low kind of policy when to save our selves we stab the truth When to gain á little repute which yet is never solidly got by lying we hazard our very souls When we are so desirous of some shelter for sin that rather than fail we make up an hedge for it as the Prophet saies of briars and thorns set up against the Lord. In this case the Lyar too truly fulfils the old Proverb And shews himself by his pleading not guilty fearful of men but by his inward falseness a wretched contemner of the all-seeing the heart-searching God In lower things the Clock is prized by its true going The Money is valued when it is no Counterfeit And that Young Man shall be accounted a branch of hope indeed whose tongue is as choice Silver and his words words of ingenuity and truth The fault that is yet but one he will not make it two by denial He may have many weaknesses but still takes care that he may be believed in what he speaketh and therefore resolves the whole world shall not justly charge him with a lye 6. Not one that takes the name of God in vain Oh! no he knows God over-hears and will not hold him guiltless that dares do it He is thankful that he may have leave to use it in Prayer he delights to meet with it in reading the Scriptures but he loves it too well to abuse it irreverently in his lips It was a good Counsel once well given by a Royal Parent to his Son Let the name of God be more sparingly in your mouth but more abundantly in your heart The Jews of old accounted the name Iehovah so sacred that they durst not utter it The High Priest alone and that in the Temple only but once in the year at their solemn Feast while he blessed the people might have leave to mention it For others it was death And I have read of a poor begging Jew in these later and modern times that had a great Alms offered him on these terms but to pronounce that Word who yet refused it They wound up the string too high and became superstitious The Christian abates that but continues truly reverent and willingly fears this glorious and fearful name The Lord his God Dear Children be you admonished in this weighty matter and I hope you will take great heed that you offend not with your tongue He that must needs at almost every word cry oh Lord doth not so much say oh Lord help but rather oh Lord come and punish my sin 7. Not one that profanes that sacred name of God by wretched swearing by horrid Oaths Oh! no an Oath was never allowed but in ponderous and weighty Cases And the holy Language still tells us by the Conjugation wherein the word is only used we should be rather passive than active No further acquainted with an Oath than when we are solemnly called upon by Authority not to be denied There is a curse from God a flying Rowl which how unwelcome soever shall yet enter into the house of the swearer and shall remain there though sore against his will till it hath recovered the glory of Gods name which he had wronged There is but little gained by sin men do but provoke the Lord to their own confusion The nations which knew not God were yet a Law to themselves and a great example to all Posterity in the condemning of this odious sin With the Scythians the Swearers punishment was loss of his Estate With the Persians servitude and bondage With the Grecians the cutting off their ears as those that had infected the ears of others With the Romans it was throwing down from a steep high Rock Thus have they born their testimony before us that we might receive instruction from a foolish people and learn in them our own duty Me thinks Dear Children you should be every one saying to your selves I see now indeed the Lord hath severely charged me as once the Emperour Augustus to the Praetors of Rome that his name should not be vilely trodden under foot or abused by wretched Oaths in my lips He that will not so much as forbear these for Gods sake bears but very little respect to God or his commands Other sins have their several excuses such as they are though but sorry ones This is that hath nothing to say for it self No cause for it no sweetness no pleasure no profit in it no credit no advantage by it neither believed nor trusted one grain the more for it Others are weary of it the Offender himself hath not the face to plead for it Of all men the Swearer sins upon