Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	heart_n	know_v	speak_v	4,049	5	4.4293	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B06797	Two sermons concerning nature and grace. Preach'd at White-hall, April, 1699. / By E. Young, Fellow of Winchester-College ...	Young, Edward, 1641 or 2-1705.	1700 (1700)	Wing Y71; ESTC R41169	21,820	61

God to the Power of his Natural Affections he necessarily sinks into the Level of Common Impotence without any other Influx This View of the State of Lapsed Nature I have drawn chiefly from the Doctrine of the Gospel Not that I suppose the Notice of it to be confined to that part of the Scripture For as it is a Truth that was always of Importance to be known so we have little reason to believe but that it was known by the Church of God in all Ages from the Beginning In the Books of the Prophets Nature's Insufficiency of Good Isa 26.12 Isa 55.1 c. as likewise the Free Overtures of Grace to help it out are plainly testify'd And yet more plainly in the Psalmist where all the Offices of the Holy Spirit conducing to Sanctification as Cleansing Guiding Helping Renewing Comforting Strengthening Establishing are mentioned as expresly as in the Gospel In the Writings of Moses the Necessity of God's Assistance of Sanctification is delivered with formal Evidence For after that God had institude Circumcision as a Symbol of Purity and had told the Israelites withal That the true Discharge of their Duty towards him consisted in the Moral Circumcision of the Heart i. e. In taking off their Love from the World and placing it in the highest measure upon God lest they should fail of their End through Ignorance of their Means and set about this great Work in Confidence of their own Ability he thus instructs them Deut. 30.6 The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul Now what plainer words can be used to express That although they stood obliged to love God with all their heart yet of Themselves they were not able to work out this Issue but that God was always ready to assist them to do it The Striving of God's Holy Spirit with Men for their Conversion Gen. 6.3 is spoken of a a known and received Truth before the Flood And whereas it is said of several of the Patriarchs That they walked with God Gen. 5.22 Gen. 6.9 the Expression with God must reasonably be interpreted to signifie With God's Assistance as well as According to his Will Farther than this Had I leisure to gratifie the Curious I have large room to make it appear That this very Doctrine was familiarly espoused by the Wise Men among the Heathen Who as they found by Conscious Experience That it was as little in a Man's Power to make himself Vertuous as it was to make himself Fortunate and as they likewise thought it suitable to the Goodness of God to take Care of Man's Greater Good as well as of his Lesser so they espoused this Belief of God's assisting Men to Probity of Manners as a Truth deducible from the first Principles of Reason Accordingly Plato delivers it as a Rule received from Socrates and laid down as a Fundamental in his Morality That Vertue was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Divine Distribution and that Education Precepts Example and Practical Diligence were only partial Advances towards it but that the State was god and finished by the Concurrence of God And what can be more express and withal more venerable than that of Seneca when he says Nulla fine Deo mens bona No Soul can be Good without the Divine Assistance But I have asserted my Point from a better Authority and therefore thought it fit to engage no farther in this way of Proof as being supperfluous in a Christian Auditory Having then offered This as the True Prospect of the State of Lapsed Nature the next thing I purpose is a Vindication of this State from such Cavils as the Rash and such Complaints as the Weak are apt to conceive against it And this I intend for the Subject of the following Discourse SERMON II. St. MATTH XXVI 35. Peter said unto him Though I should die with thee yet will I not deny thee IN a former Discourse upon this Text I offer'd the Scriptural View and Account of Lapsed Nature from whence it fully appears that no Man is sufficient either to be or to continue Good in his own Strength Which is a Doctrine directly serving the Two great Ends of Religion viz. To exalt the Glory of God And to beat down all Pretences of Humane Pride But as all Truth is abusable so we may be aware that many espouse this very Truth the more freely only that they may the more freely form it into an Apology for careless Living For Example thus they argue Our Nature is indisposed perverse and insussicient to Good therefore How miserable is our Condition thus to be maimed before we were born and made guilty before we knew how to act and obnoxious for doing that which we cannot help How unaccountably fatal was the Indiscretion of our First Parents which gave occasion to this Disorder And how unfortunate their Posterity to whom it is derived Why did not God with more appearance of Compassion redintegrate our Nature after the Fall and restore it to its Primitive Uprightness How much better had his Service been provided for by this Method and Man more happily prevented from his Displeasure Which Displeasure of his we cannot now avoid unless it be by his own Act whose Actings are not supposable to be at our Discretion Now it is certain that all such kind of Arguings are profane and tend to nothing but the Dishonour of God and the Support and Countenance of Vice in the World And therefore to obviate these Mischiefs and to carry on my Contemplation to its proper Usefulness I am obliged to enquire into the Reasons Why the Wisdom and Goodness of God thought fit to leave Mankind under this present state of Weakness and Insufficiency From which Enquiry I shall show 1. That what God Chiefly intended thereby was To oblige us more strictly to live in a perpetual Dependance upon himself And 2. That such a Dependance put in Practice will effectually cut off all possible pretences of humane Complaint My first Business is to enquire into the Reasons why the Wisdom and Goodness of God thought fit to leave Mankind under this present state of Weakness Insufficiency and Disorder We must allow That God could have immediately reformed that Disorder which was brought upon our Nature by the First Disobedience He could have check'd it in its first Authors and not suffer'd it to be propagated to their Posterity but in the mean time it would be much too bold for any one to say that this would have been the Better Method For 't is certain That in things proceeding from God that which Is is always Best though we sometimes cannot penetrate into the Reasons that make it so But as to the present Instance we may with Reverence penetrate into its Reasons and such as must be allow'd of Ex. gr 1. Who can think but that when Sin had got footing in despight of