Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	great_a	know_v	word_n	4,458	5	3.8471	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50552	A sermon preached before the Queen, at White-Hall, July 5. 1691 by Richard Meggott ...	Meggott, Richard, d. 1692.	1691 (1691)	Wing M1630; ESTC R9794	9,793	29

SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL JVLY 5. 1691. By R. Meggott D. D. Dean of Winchester and Chaplain to Their Majesties Published by Her Maiesties Special Command LONDON Printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCXCI I. Epistle of S. John 3.20 For if our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things ONE would be apt to think that we of our Profession should not speak with so little effect as generally we do considering the Matter and Substance of our Message We exhort you to nothing but that which you your selves as oft as you are serious judge meet and necessary reprove you for nothing but that for which even your own ingenuity doth so too and cannot but confess you are to blame for The things are all so equal and reasonable that not only the Modest and Vertuous but the very Loosest and Wildest sort of People are not without regrets and reluctancies in their violations of them What aileth thee O thou Sea that thou flyest We see no affections or passions in any of the other Creatures but what have some foundation it is not for nothing that the Hare runneth at the sight of the Dog or the Lamb trembleth at the approach of the Wolf so that if those horrors for evil actions that are woven into our constitutions should be in vain and without any ground it would have been an error and miscarriage in our very Creation which seeing we cannot in the least discover in any of the rest of the works of God but that in wisdom he hath founded them all why should we suspect and mistrust it here We may much rather conclude that he who hath given instincts to Birds Beasts Fishes proper and useful for the preservation of themselves from mischief hath placed Conscience in the immortal part of man for the same end namely to forewarn him of the things that tend to his eternal ruine Let no one then despise these involuntary throbbings and recoilings of his heart upon the irregularities of his conversation they are not the products of a childish or artificial superstition but the prognosticks of a real danger How else should come such consternations in our minds at things so agreeable to our inclinations If our Spirits upon such occasions speak not good things concerning us but evil it is but what they have first received from the Lord if they accuse and cast us whatsoever they bind on earth is bound in heaven They are but the Eccho's of that sentence which the Judge of all the world whose Deputies they are at that time doth pass on us and therefore if these have ought against us we may be assured he hath much more This is the Doctrine our Apostle delivereth in the Text if our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things In which words here are two practical truths to be took notice of The One is supposed and this is that we cannot but disapprove of our selves when we take to and go on in any sinful courses our own hearts forbear not to condemn us for them The Other is asserted and this is that if our hearts do condemn us so long as we abide in that state we can expect nothing but to be condemned of God also He is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things That which I would first propound to your consideration is what is here supposed That we cannot but disapprove of our selves when we take to and go on in any sinful courses Our own hearts forbear not to condemn us for them I need not tell you that the word heart in Scripture is not ordinarily to be understood literally of that part of our body called so but metaphorically of the powers of the Soul In this sence it is sometimes put for the understanding so Rom. 1.21 their foolish heart was darkned Sometimes for the will so Mat. 22.37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Sometimes for the memory so Psalm 119.11 Thy word I have hid in my heart Sometimes for the Conscience so Eccles 7.22 Thine own heart knoweth also that thou thy self hast cursed others And in this last acceptation you are to take it here that our heart condemneth us that is in the Hebrew way of speaking which St. John useth and hath no precise peculiar word for it our Consciences Not that you are to conceive of this as a distinct being of it self subsisting separate from any of these faculties I have mentioned that were as fantastick as to imagine death to be a person but the operation and result of these in conjunction about our moral actions So it is that when they are evil and unjustifiable we cannot reflect on them without inquietude and dissatisfaction Among mankind some are Fools and some are Lunaticks by the same means and in the same measure that a man may be without Reason he may be without Conscience too but when ever this is whole and sound the other abideth so also It is as natural to us as that is being indeed but the maxims and the use of it The whole element of Fire may as soon be quenched by the spitting of a Child or the Wind blow out the light of the Sun that ruleth the day as any violence or sophistry as long as we are our selves be able to extinguish it I grant it doth not constantly make the same noise in us Sometimes it is as the alarum of a Clock that goeth aloud and waketh us with its warnings at other times as the hand of the Dyal that pointeth silently to the figure without striking but either as one or t'other here it is immovably fixed in every one of us to record and judge our actions The high as well as the low the gay as well as the melancholy the bold as well as the timerous have its company No greatness can daunt it no pleasures can charm it no advantages can bribe it from performing its office This the daily experience of all ranks and degrees of people doth so manifestly prove that I should not choose any longer to insist on it were it not for the clearing of these two things I. How our hearts can be said to condemn us when we do evil when as such as walk contrary one to another in things of mighty moment pertaining to God and to their duty neither have any regret for what they do but both sides inward peace and quiet Secondly How our hearts can be said to condemn us when we do evil when several that live in scandalous vices and immoralities are yet so far from any trouble of mind about it they rather make a mock of it The first objection to be answered is how our hearts can be said to condemn us when we do evil when as such as walk contrary one to another in things of mighty moment pertaining to God and to their duty neither have any regret for what they do