Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	goodness_n	lord_n	merciful_a	1,997	5	8.9155	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49178	The ascents of the soul, or, David's mount towards God's house being paraphrases on the fifteen Psalms of Degrees / written in Italian, by ... Gio. Francesco Loredano ..., 1656 ; render'd into English, Anno Dom. 1665.; Gradi dell'anima. English	Loredano, Giovanni Francesco, 1607-1661.; Coleraine, Hugh Hare, Baron, 1606?-1667.	1681 (1681)	Wing L3065; ESTC R6897	69,621	80

frights me with the thoughts of thy comeing with thy Holy ones to judge the World lest I be then found in the number of such profane wretches as shall be shut forth of thy Caelestial Mansions I therefore dread that last and great Assizes of thy Saints most glorious God I fear that general Summons and the Assembly of thy first born least when that Bench sits upon the examination of my Actions and Omissions how I have neglected the directions of their Doctrine and not imitated the goodness of their Manners nor traced the footsteps of their Charity nor admired the proofs of their Patience I being so vile a sinner such reprobate silver may be rejected for if I am apprehended without the wedding garment of Christs righteousness I have nothing to say for my self no plea to make saving the inexpressible desire of my poor Soul not to be excluded with Doggs but to enter into the Holyest City the new Jerusalem I confess good Lord that I have neither worth nor will to follow the conducts of thy grace nor to arrive at thy Favour all the courses of my Life have been great aggravations of my guiltiness for I have slighted thy Omnipotency by prideing my self in thy extraordinary gifts The very sight and heat of the Sun have appeared not the Loanes of thy peculiar bounty but things made on purpose for my convenience The return and pleasure of each season hath been reckon'd the unavoidable actings of sublunary Creatures Thunder Lightning and storms of Hail were too often counted the necessary effects of second causes Thus Brutish have I been thus blind and yet I knew full well there would not be a Breath of Air nor so much as a lease wag unless it were by thy appointment that makes every Creature live and move and have a Being Yet alass for all I can so speciously declare this I must confess also that many a time when my tongue undertook to disclose thy Name with the due Attributes of thy greatness my wild heart hath then witheld its assent and been ready to give the lye to my speech Since therefore all that I can say of my self speaks me very guilty before thee O Lord I Plead not any Merits but those of my Saviours Passions not any goodness but that of thy Divine Nature afford me these through thy Grace and then I shall have that peace which is an inseparable accident to it I shall have such a Magazine of blessing as may render my Soul like a strong fortress well provided against the assaults of the World and the snares of the Devil Gratious Lord I have often begg'd the favour of thy mercy to draw me out of that wretched state of my prevarications and from the slavery of Concupisence and from the Tyranny of evil habits I know how weak how blind how false or infirme our own Nature finds it self at the best and therefore he that supposeth without the assistance of thy goodness without the armour of thy Grace without the incouragement of thy Love either to quell the impetuousness of his Lusts or to get up to the holy Hill destroying like a Jonathan all his enemies in his way such a one must surely be more then a Man or mistakes himself grosly for he should know 't is only from the excess of thy pitty that a sinner is turned from the evil of his way The prodigal soul that hath long strayed can never make up its losses nor mend its condition unless it be by the inexhausted treasures of thy Grace Help me therefore and redeem me from the power of Satan unto God that being intrusted with thy Talents I may shew forth to all thy manifold goodness and tender Bowels of Compassions so that sinners many with my self may be farther converted unto Thee and by my example inflamed with thy Love renounce Earthly Toyes and pay thy Clemency the due Tribute of penitential Tears And from whence dear God! art yet more glorified then by forgiving us poor sinners Thy mercies are likewise a guide for ours since all the Acts of thy goodness and kindness may in some degree be imitated by man He was formed after thy Image and the more just and holy he is the more doth he approach unto Thee That Prince who best resembles God on Earth must own his power to reward or to punish from thy special grant O Jesu The Martyrs have essayed to copy out thy patience the Virgins thy purity Confessors thy truth and Hermits thy Innocence But alass How far short are they of the Original They have represented thy image as St. Paul speaks but as in a glass very darkly and deficiently For as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so far more excellent are thy operations and affections then ours The proofes of thy goodness are infintly Transcendent and inexpressible rather to be admired then exemplifyed and did not all the Prerogatives of Heaven and Earth concur to set forth thy greatness and to speak thee the Lord of Hosts Yet thy goodness alone would describe thee most admirably according as thou declaredst thy self unto Moses the Lord the Lord merciful and gracious slow to anger and abundant in truth and goodness Therefore extend these glorious attributes towards my relief and advance thy lovely Titles by the forgiveness of my sins I have no farther cause to urge but that by how much the more unworthy my Soul is of pardon by so much the more will thy pity be ador'd in the pardoning of me The fourth Step on the fourth PSALM of Degrees being the 123 PSALM Ad te Levavi c. COme Lord O come and and help my sinking Soul that being sear'd with many troublesom Illusions will let me fall I doubt into the dark of sin I have experienced to my cost how much the ill propensities of my Nature corrupt my sentiments and habituating me to the relish of tentation almost perswade me 't is impossible to resist I live indeed with my self far from my self at such a distance from a good mind as to be without the neighbourhood or acquaintance of my own bad one Self love deludes me with false reflexes and gives to vice it self the surname of Vertue it makes me a self-deceiver and a gross flatterer of my own opinions so that I am apt to spare and connive at my self in the midst of my greatest delinquencies but not to entertain my self any longer among the miseries I contract nor to cast away my life too blindly amongst errors I lift up the Eyes of my Soul to the light of thy divine Presence and with a steady Faith a lively Hope a most ardent Love a fixed Contemplation a strong Patience and a sincere Indeavour I implore thy Assistance and intreat thy Mercy My sight hath lost its ability in regarding worldly Objects and I would not injoy any other Visive faculty but that which thy wonderful grace may afford me let him aim and look at dirt who full of earthly

subdue and inslave me The Fifth Step on the Fifth PSALM of Degrees being the 124 PSALM Nisi quia Dominus c. IF in defence of my known weakness thy power O God! were not provided with a like infinity of commiseration and if this did not seasonably come in to my relief how should I Stem the tide of Passions which dangerously swells up my breast what would become of me in such a deluge as they would throw upon me Ah! let the purest Soul confess and the choisest Spirits acknowledg together with the Elect and confirmed Angels that if the Holyness of a Saviour had not shelter'd theirs if Jesus had not bid the Waves and Winds be quiet and obey him who of them all might not have sunk down and perished in the stormy Lake Had not Christ halcyon'd the proud storms of our Passions had he not quel'd the miseries of this life who could have born them who amongst us could have rid safe through such tempests or have held out against such attacks as the sin beleaguer'd Soul incounters None could have promised ease or a sanctuary to our vex'd minds none could have reach'd to the serenities of Heaven Our strength is weakness say the Scriptures if not strengthn'd by divine supplies The Mettal or condition of our humanity is too brittle to be trusted if not back'd by the author of our Salvation Keep therefore with my heart continually O God! that the Image of thy Son may not fall in darkness or in the shadow of death nor that soul be lost for which he took to himself a body If I have not thine ayd O Lord I cannot get out of the dungeon of my sins nor avoyd the stings of that infernal scorpion but thou without looking on the demerit of my crimes and the transgressions of my past life wilt I hope assist and deliver me from the perills both of soul and body wherewith I may be surrounded I am ready to cry out who is sufficient for these things How can I resist the attempts of the flesh the allurements of the world or the assaults of our cunning adversary the devil I am intangled as the unhappy Laocoon is said to be Aenoid lib. 2. When three such poysonous serpents crawling out of the earth are twisted against me They make sure of my ruine and how can I break the knots of such a triple League since the beauty but of one face adorned with several charms had almost got the command of my heart and the solace of idleness the sweets of riches the savour of vain glory many times captive my affections ere I am aware of them what may not the cunning therefore of the Father of these falshoods impose upon me since he differs not in power from the best of the Angels but in the manner of his operations if not restrained by thine immediate hand When such dangerous enemies had attacqued my inconsideratness and batter'd my cowardice I having but little or no constancy nor integrity I had certainly become the prey of their malice and they must needs have left me in the very jaws of death and damnation Away then from me all ye instruments of sin and mischief above named goe ye buisy seducers of the best mens ways Ye with your jugglings dazle the eyes of the Soul that like a Sodomite it should not find the Dore of Life the way to get into the City of the Lamb ye so varnish over the Copy of Falshood as it proves a hard matter to discern her from the Original of truth and our Consciences are hurt not purg'd by your sugaring over the draught of Sin Nevertheless O merciful God! let that invincible power by which Lucifer was tumbled down from Heaven and Hell it self led Captive free me from these Hunters after my Life these noisom Pestilences to my Health these tyrannick Nimrods against my Liberty if their malice be once turned into fury what shall I do for if thou hadst not been my Refuge and Fortress I had fallen through that baseness of Mind which is incident to the Sinner who doubts of finding any Friend in his own Heart or any Evidence in his Conscience but what will be against himself If thou hadst not by thy unspeakable bounty afforded me some patience and perseverance to disentangle me from many wicked devices perhaps the Waves of my Afflictions and Trialls would have swallowed up all the Faculties of my Soul and made my Heart a Cage of unclean Birds a Vessel full of nothing but what was foul and bestial But by thy aid I must acknowledge it is that I have given place to Charity and Forgiveness without regarding the nice punctilioes of the blinded World then when Egg'd on by the desire of Revenge which is the keenest Goad in the sides of Flesh and Blood I strove to set up my self far above my self even in thy Throne of Vengeance But For all I might have once too vainly thought to secure the best share of thy favour when I made a Covenant with my Eyes which are as Tinder to the Fire of Amorous passions not to stoop at any Femal Object and when I farther attempted to set up the Government of Reason over all the mutinies of my sense and so to get a Triumphal-Wreath by the passing safely through those dangers which threatned to overwhelm my Soul O Lord I find now that I Designed too much Doing so little and Considering less that without thy gracious and continual Assistance without the extreamest Acts of thy bounty my utmost endeavours had been but Flourishes in the Aire and Paeans before a Victory They might have allarmed my Adversary awaked his greater force and policies But the escaping his malicious devices would have been without the compass of my Power and Arms. When I perceived this I could discover also that it was thy good will I should gain a Conquest and though my strength was but weakness yet that this my weakness should not be wrought upon too far by all the force and cunning of my Adversaries Therefore gracious Lord I pray that thy Goodness may have its due praise that thy Mercy be greatly blessed and thy Greatness glorified since thou hast not suffered my visible or invisible Foes to triumph over me but thou hast delivered me like Daniel from the jaws of those Abaddons who would have torn and miserably destroyed even my better part my Soul O that I could immortalize my Voice to resound thy Name more Gloriously O that all my Words might become Spirits and that I could devote them all to the service of my God as a small acknowledgment of the grace received from thee However I fall short I will endeavour to speak my self not insensible though unworthy of thy Favours I will try if my Arms who have hitherto served as Chains to embrace the Debauches of the World may be turned into Columns erected unto Heaven in Thanksgiving and supplications for thy help I will try if my Mouth