Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	hear_v	speak_v	word_n	7,138	5	4.4441	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67750	An experimental index of the heart in which (as in a looking-glass) both profane and civil men may see enough, to make them in love with religion, being a most happie and providential conference between two friends (after the ones heart was changed) the which may both provoke and incourage all sorts of sinners to read the same, that (in the least) love themselves : drawn up and published for the good of all / by R. Younge ... ; add this as a second part to those three fundamental principles of Christian religion, intituled, A short and sure way to grace and salvation.	Younge, Richard.	1658 (1658)	Wing Y154; ESTC R7768	18,705	18

AN Experimental INDEX Of The HEART In which as in a Looking-glass both Profane and Civil men may see enough to make them in love with Religion Being a most happie and providential Conference between two Friends after the ones heart was changed the which may both provoke and incourage all sorts of Sinners to read the same that in the least love themselves Drawn up and published for the good of all By R. YOUNGE of Roxwell in Essex Florilegus Add this as a Second Part to those Three Fundamental Principles of Christian Religion Intituled A short and sure way to Grace and Salvation Sect. XXVII ALoose Libertine meeting with his Friend that had lately been a Formal Christian he greets him as followeth SIR me thinks I have observed in you a strange alteration since our last meeting at Middleburrough nor onely in your behaviour company and converse but even in your countenance What is the matter if I may bee so bold Convert Truly Sir you are not at all mistaken nor am I unwilling to acquaint you with the cause if you can affoard to hear it Soon after my return into England I was carried by a friend to hear a Sermon where the Minister so represented the very thoughts secrets and deceitfulnesse of my heart unto my conscience that I could not but say of him as the Woman of Samaria once spake of our Saviour He hath told me all things that ever I did Which made me conclude with that Unbeliever 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. That God was in him of a truth nor could he ever have so done if he were not of God As the Young-man in the Gospel reasoned with the Pharisees touching Jesus when he had opened his eies that had been blinde from his birth Joh. 9. 32 33. Whereupon I could have no peace nor rest untill I had further comm●●ed with him about my estate for I found my self in a lost condition touching Eternity It faring with me as it did with those Jews Acts 2. when Peter by his searching Sermon had convinced them that Christ whom t●ey had by wicked hands crucified and slain was the onely Son of God and Lord of glory ver. 36. 37. And having had the happinesse to enjoy the benefit of his ●●ge advice as I stood in need thereof God having given him the tongue of the learn●d to administer a word in season to them that are wea●y Is● 50. 4. I blesse God his word and Spirit hath wrought in me such a change and strange alteration ●hat it hath opened mine eies that were 〈◊〉 before inclined my will to obedience which before was rebelli●us softned my heart sanctified and quite changed my ●ffections so that I now love that good which before I hated and hate that evil which before I loved and 〈◊〉 deli●●ted with ●hose holy exercises which heretofore did most displease me and am displeased wi●h ●hose vain pl●as●●es and filt●●e sins which in times p●st did most delight me Which is such a mercie that no tongue ●s able to expresse For till that hour I went on in the broad way and worlds road to destruction without any mist ust whereas now God hath been pleased to take me into his Kingdom of grace here and w●l never leave me untill he hath brought mee to his Kingdome of glory hereafter Loose Libertine What you speak makes me wonder for I ever he●d you the compleatest man of my acquaintance just in all your dealings temperate and civil in your depo●tment yea I have never seen you exceed in the least nor heard you swear an Oath ●xc●pt faith and troth and that ve●y rarely Besides you have been a good Protestant and gone to Church all your daies Convert What you speak none that know me can contradict nor could they ever accuse me of any scandalous crime or unjust act Yea I had the same thoughts of my self and should any one have told me formerly that I was such a great sinner such a Devil incarnate as I was I should have replied as Hazael did to the Prophet telling him of the abominable wickedness he would e're long commit What am I a D● c. 2 Kings 8. 12 13. And no wonder for as every man in his natural condition is stark blind to spiritual objects 1 Cor. 2. 14. so the heart of man is deceitful above all things even so deceitful that none but God alone can know it as the Prophet shews Jer. 17. 10. But because this is a truth that transcends your belief and because it may be of singular use to you also to know the same I will give you a short character of my former condition the which done I doubt not but you will assent unto what I have ●itherto said or shall further relate Sect. XXVIII First touching my knowledge I mean saving knowledge without which the soul cannot be good as wise Solomon witnesseth Prov. 19. 2. it was such though I thought my self wiser then to make scruple of or perplex my self about matters of Religion as do the religious even as the King of Tyrus thought himself wiser then Daniel Ezek. 28. 3. that spiritual things were mostly represented to my understanding false and clean contrary to what they are indeed Like corporal things in a Looking-glass wherein those that are on the right hand seem to be on the left and those that are on the left hand seem to be on the right As it fared with Saint Paul while he was in his natural condition Acts 26. 9. which made me think and call evil good and good evil bitter sweet and sweet bitter to justifie the wicked condemn the just as the Prophet complains Isa. 5. 20 23. As for instance I most sottishly thought that I both loved and served God as I ought yea I should have taken it in four scorn if any one had questioned the same when indeed I was a Traitor to God and took up arms against all that worshipped him in Spirit and in truth I was so far from loving and serving him that I hated those that did it and that for their so doing I could also hear him blasphemed reproached and dishonored without being once stirred or moved at it I loved him dearly but I could never affoard to speak a word for him and likewise his Children intirely but instead of justifying them or speaking in their defence when I heard them scoft scorned abused by wicked ungodly men all my delight was to jeer at flight and slander them where ever I came I more feared the Magistrate then I feared God and more regarded the blasts of men's breath then the fire of God's wrath I chose rather to disobey God then to displease great ones and feared more the worlds scorns then his anger And the like of Christ that died for me a strong argument that I loved Christ when I hated all that resembled him in holiness Yea I so hated holiness that I most bitterly hated men for being holy insomuch that my

secure then the worst of sinners they can strut it under an unsupportable Mass ●f oaths blasphemies thefts murthers adulteries drunkness and other the like sins yea can easily swallow these spiders with Mithridates and digest them too when one that is regenerate shrinkes under the burden of wandring thoughts and want of proficiency But why is it they are dead in sin Ephes. 2. 1. Revel. 3. 1. Now lay a mountain vpon a dead-man he feels not once the weight To a Christian that hath the life of grace the least sin lyes heavy upon the conscience but to him that is dead let his sins be as heavy as a mountain of l●●d hee feels in them no weight at all Again they are insensible of their fin and danger because ignorant for for what the eye seeth not the hear trueth not Security makes wordlings merry and therefore are they secure because they are ignorant A dunce wee know seldome makes doubts yea a fool sayes Solomon boasteth and is confident Prov. 14. 16. neither do blind-men ever blush And the truth is were it not for pride and ignorance a world of men would be ashamed to have their faces seen abroad For take away from mens minds vain opinions flattering hopes false valuations imaginatious and the like you will leav the minds of most men and women but poor sh●unken things full of melancholly indisposition and unpleasing to themselves Ignorance is a vail or curtain to hide away their sins whereupon they are never troubled in conscience nor macerated with cares about eternity but think that all will be wel● The div●l and the flesh prophesy prosperity to sin yea life and salvation as the Pope promised the powder-traitors but death and damnation which Gods spirit threa●e●s will prove the crop they will reap For God is true the divell and all flesh are lyers When wee become regenerate and forsake sin then the divell strongly and strangely assaults us as he did Christ when he was newly baptized and Pharoh the Children of Israel when they would forsake Egypt and Herod the Children when Christ was come to deliver his people Whence commonly it coms to pass that those think best of themselves that have least cause yea the true Christian is as fearfull to entertain a good opinion of himself as the false is unwilling to he driven from it They that have store of grace mourn for the want of it and they that indeed want it chant their abundance None so apt to doubt their adoption as they that may be assured of it nor none more usually fear then they that have the greatest cause to hope Wee feel corruption not by corruption but by grace and therefore the more wee feel our inward corruptions the more grace we have Contraries the neerer they are to one another the sharper is the conflict betwixt them now of all enemies the spirit and the flesh are neerest one to another being both in the soul of a regenerate man and in all faculties of the soul and in every action that springeth from those faculties The more grace the more spirituall life and the more spirituall life the more antipathy to the contrary whence none are so sensible of corruption as those that have the most living souls Sect. XXXVI Now for remedy of the contrary there cannot be a better lesson for carnall men to learn then this All the promises of God are conditionall to take place if wee repent as all the threatnings of God are conditionall to take place if wee repent not But wicked men as they believ without repenting their faith being meer presumption so they repent without believing their repentance being indeed desperation and this observe wee are cast down in the disappointing of our hopes in the same measure as we were too much listed up in expectation of good from them Whence these perremptory presumers if ever they repent it is commonly as Francis Spira an Advocate of Padua did and never did any man plead so well for himself as he did against himself One star is much bigger then the Earth yet it seems many degrees less It is the nature of fear to make dangers greater helps lesse then they are Christ hath promised peace and rest unto their souls that labour and are heavy laden and to those that walk according to rule Matth. 11. 29. Gal. 6. 16. even peace celestiall in the state of grace and peace eternall in the state of glory Such therefore as never were distressed in conscience or live loosly never had true peace Peace is the Daughter of righteousnesse Rom. 5. 1. Being justifyed by faith we have peace with God But hee who makes a bridg of his own shaddow will be sure to fall into the water Those blocks that never in their life were moved with Gods threatnings never in any straight of conscience never groaned under the burthen of Gods anger they have not so much as entred into the porch of this house or lift a foot over the threshold of this School of repentance Oh! that wee could but so much fear the eternall pains as wee do the temporary and bee but so carefull to save our souls from torment as our bodies In the mean time the case of these men is so much the worse by how much there fear is the lesse It faring with the soul as with the body Those diseases which do take away all sence of pain are of all others most desperate As the dead palsey the falling sickness the sleepy lethargie c. And the patient is most dangerously sick when he hath no feeling thereof In like manner whilst they suppose themselves to be free from judgment they are already smitten with the heaviest of Gods judgments a heart that cannot repent Rom. 2. 5. In a lethargie it is needfull the patient should be cast into a burning Fever because the sences are benummed and this will waken them and dry up the besotting humors So in our dead securety before our conversion God is fain to let the Law Sin Conscience and Satan loose upon us and to kindle the very fire of Hell in our souls that so we might be rowsed out of our security but thousands of these blocks both live and depart with as great hopes as men go to a lottery even dreaming of Heaven untill they awakein Hell For they too often die without any remors of conscience like blocks or as an Oxe dyes in a ditch Yea thousands that live like Laban dye like Nabal which is but the same word inverted whilest others the dear Children of God dye in distresse of conscience For it is not every good mans hap to dye like Antonius Pius whose death was after the fassion and semblance of a kindly and pleasant sleep However Saint Austins rule will be sure to hold He cannot dye ill that hath lived well and for the most part He that lives conscionably dyes comfortably and departeth rich And so you see how it fares with the wickedest and