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	let_v	word_n	4,583	5	4.2365	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43703	A sermon preached before the Queen, at White-hall, on Sunday the 26th of October, 1690 by Charles Hickman.	Hickman, Charles, 1648-1713.	1690 (1690)	Wing H1900; ESTC R11429	12,291	29

a Rock when he remembers that we are but dust There is a natural frailness and inconsistency in our Flesh which makes us always subject to fall away but yet God has given us a Spirit that in some measure is able to support us and where 't is not the Holy Spirit will help us out But they who will contribute nothing towards their own safety must inevitably fall If we let our Spirits languish for want of use refuse to put them upon their trial or to perform that part which God has put into our own Power we have little reason to expect that the Holy Ghost should take upon himself the whole concern and trouble of our Salvation Therefore to comply with the Rule in my Text. Whensoever we find our selves tempted unto Sin and see our Vertue strongly beset from without let us retire within our own Souls Commune with our heart and see what assistance we can fetch from thence Let us deliberate with our selves what will be the consequence of our Sin and impartially examine the present conveniences which we propose in it and the inconveniences which we know must follow from it and having set the one fairly against the other let us prudently weigh the Pleasure against the Pain and see which has the over-balance As for instance we would comply perhaps with some boistrous Passion or gratify some extravagant desire Covetousness or Lust Ambition or Revenge or some such unruly Affection is ever and anon attempting upon our Soul and claiming the precedence of our Vertue And to an unwary Man it cannot fail of many plausible Arguments to plead in its behalf That the desire is natural and the satisfaction great that revenge is pleasant and stollen Waters sweet but that Vertue is a severe melancholy institution an unnatural Discipline an unnecessary restraint that debases our Spirits robs us of the enjoyment of our Youth and is an entertainment proper only for a sedentary decrepit Age. If these perswasions prevail in all likelihood the Man is lost and never lives to that Age when Vertue comes in Fashion But if Vertue were allow'd to speak for it self it would make a very good defence where Vice should be asham'd to shew its Face The time will come when we shall understand the force of Abraham's Argument My Son remember that thou injoyedst thy good things in thy life time and Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Then we shall see the difference between Abraham's Bosom and a sumptuous Feast the short tumultuous interrupted Entertainments of the one compar'd with the spiritual Eternal Pleasures of the other Nay that we may not go so high for a comparison we shall find the poor Man that lay begging at the Gate in more happy condition than he that feasted sumptuously at the Table Take him with all his Poverty and Wounds about him yet his Faith and Vertue will make him whole and his Conscience affords him a better Feast than all the rich Mans Estate can purchase An honest faithful heart is a sure Retreat where we may find safety and satisfaction too against all the Calamities of this Life and he that has so good a refuge can never complain that he is destitute and forsaken He carries his Comfort with him in his Breast which can never be taken from him whilst the Sinner carries his torment there and what gaiety soever may be in his outward shew yet at his heart there grows a worm which will never die and in his Entrails he has already kindled that fire which never goeth out With such considerations as these let us fortifie our Vertue in the time of Trial when the tempter comes upon us with all his deceitful Colours and flattering Promises to put us into a state of ease and make us truly happy let us not give credit to his words but Commune with our own hearts whether it be so or not When he tells us as he did Eve before us that we shall not die let us consider which is fittest for us to believe the Father of Lyes or the God of Truth Surely where there is so vast a difference between the Competitours there can be no difficulty in our determination No nicety of Judgment is here requir'd no Grains and Scruples to decide the Cause but the Competition lies between Light and Darkness the Shadow and the Sun all Vanity and Emptiness on the one hand all Glory and Substance on the other So gross and palpable is the difference that we need not spend time to judg Ask but our hearts and our own hearts deceitful as they are cannot chuse but give us a faithful Answer Where the cause is of so great importance and we have so little a way to go for a determination who would think that Man should be so negligent and remiss as to involve himself in dangerous Sins fatal Errours only for want of asking himself one easie Question But perhaps we have no leisure for such inquiries our thoughts may be so taken up and our Minds so full of other matters that either we have not the heart to ask or at least have not the heart to Answer Indeed there is nothing so apt to fill as Vanity and no Man is more busie than he that has least to do And yet one would think that amidst all the Croud of trifling Imaginations which flock about us there might be room left for one serious thought But if not if our Minds are so unfortunately prepossess'd so deeply engag'd that we find it difficult to draw them off then we must apply the Last rule in my Text we must retire into our Chamber and be still There we may learn to compose our thoughts and bring our selves to a better temper give our Passions time to cool and then our Affections quickly will be chang'd There we may see our Sins stript of all their deceitful Garniture the Vanity all worn off and nothing but the vexation left and so ghastly a Figure will our Vices make that to abstain from them will hardly appear a Vertue There is nothing like solitude and retirement to recollect our thoughts and make us come unto our selves after we have been seduced by conversation and enchanted by the multitude Whilst we are in the World we must expect a whole torrent of evil Customs and corrupted Manners to come upon us and shall be in danger to be carried away with the tide With such a violent force does it overwhelm our Vertue and over-power our Reason that 't is very difficult to bear up against it But if we would have our hearts at our own command we must retire out of the Croud enter into our Closets and sometimes give our own sedate thoughts leave to play their parts There may be Seeds of Vertue and Honour in us which we know not of that have lain stifled all this while under the rubbige of the World and choakt by other Mens inclinations against our own