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
A55939	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor and court of aldermen at Guild-Hall-Chappel, July the 23th, 1682 by Thomas Pargiter ...	Pargiter, Thomas, 1642 or 3-1705.	1682 (1682)	Wing P356; ESTC R604	14,925	40

amongst us as it ought to be for who is there that believes our report in this matter that hath any regard to what we say in this thing or that follows the Advice and Counsel that we give them in it who are the Persons and where are they now almost to be found that behave themselves aright in this case and are as careful as they ought to be not to go beyond and defraud their Brethren Are not the Hearts of most Men fully set in them to do Evil to one another Do not their inward Thoughts altogether run after Mischief And are they not continually plotting how they may compass their villanous Designs and bring about those pernitious Devices which they have devised to the hurt of others do not the generality of Men amongst us make account that their Wits are their own and that they may use them as they please for their own Interest and Advantage here Do not they think that they may be as wise in their Generation and as crafty as possibly they can for their worldly Gains and that to inrich themselves they may over-reach their Brethren in any of their Dealings and Concerns with them And may not we make the same complaint of our Age as Petrarch somewhere doth of the Age wherein he lived That Hunters and Fowlers cannot use greater cunning in laying their Nets and Snares for wild Beasts and Fowls than we do in setting Traps for one another For what mysteries of cheating and cozenage have Men now-a-days got amongst them What Arts and Stratagems do they use to inveigle and ensnare those that are unwary and make a Prey of them And how skilfull are they grown at all the ways of circumventing and over-reaching their Brethren How subtile and politick are they in their fraudulent and deceitful Courses What cunning Fetches and Devices have they to wrong their Neighbours and do them Harm And how many Wiles and Inventions have they found out to work this their Iniquity by So many indeed that if I should declare and speak of them they would be more than I should be able to express Nay it might justly bring a Man's Honesty into suspicion to have the Skill and be able to reckon them up And therefore in a word how busy and active are the Men of this Generation in invading the Rights of their Neighbours and injuring them in their Goods and Possessions How greedy are they to inrich themselves by Fraud and Deceit and to enlarge their Estates though it be by unjust Gain and the Spoil of others And how ready are they to take every Advantage that they can over their Brethren and to bring any kind of hurt and damage upon them if by so doing they may any ways profit themselves But now 2. Let us suffer some words of Exhortation also and be perswaded for the time to come to be more strict and precise more exact and punctual in the performance of this Duty than hitherto we have been Let us not hereafter any ways wrong our Brethren nor defraud them in any matter nor in any respect whatsoever do them the least hurt but let us walk honestly amongst them and in all things deal well and truly with them and in no kind be injurious to them Let us consider what Obligations we have upon us not to wrong others Let us consider that the Law of Nature it self that very Law that is written upon all our Hearts teaches us not to do others any wrong Let us consider also that the Laws of God are very full and express to the same purpose and that the Old and the New Testament do abound with Precepts of this nature that we must not harm others nor imagine Mischief in our Hearts against them nor take any thing from them that doth of right belong to them Nay let us consider that the Commands of God do carry the business somewhat higher and oblige us to love others and to love them though not in the same degree yet with the same Truth and Sincerity of Love that we do our selves and to endeavour their good as we would our own And let us not break these Bonds asunder nor cast away these Cords from us nor sin against these Obligations which Nature and the God of Nature hath laid upon us not to be injurious and hurtful to others But if these things will not signify any thing with us as perhaps with many of us they may not then let us consider farther how very great the danger is that we run in doing wrong to others Let us bethink our selves that if we do injure and oppress and defraud our Brethren it is very likely that the Wrath of God will break out against us in this World and that we shall be soundly punished for it here but to be sure we shall smart severely for it hereafter for then God will at last come in flaming Fire to take Vengeance on us and will condemn us to the Punishments of the other World to those dreadful Pains and Torments there that will last to eternal Ages and never have an end And let these Terrors of the Lord scare us out of all our unrighteous Practices and fright us from all manner of Fraud and Injustice in our Dealings with one another Before we venture upon the wronging of our Brethren let us consider it well in our minds whether we can bear up and support our selves under the Vengeance of God that will follow Is our Damnation a thing that we can lightly pass over and make no great matter of Can we withstand the Power of God's Wrath when he shall accomplish all his Anger upon us Can we for ever bear up under the weight of his Indignation and without any anguish of Mind lie under the strokes of his eternal Vengeance and Fury Can our Hands be strong in the day that an avenging God shall deal with us in his Justice and set all his Terrors in array against us Can our Hearts endure when he shall come in flaming Fire to take Vengeance on us and turn us into Hell for the wrong that we have done Can we then with any Comfort dwell in the midst of devouring Flames and everlasting Burnings Can we then suffer the Vengeance of eternal Fire without shrinking or being daunted at it Can we then take any Contentment in the company of cursed Angels and damned Spirits And can we then chear up our selves against the horror and remorse of our own guilty Consciences and with Patience indure the Stings and Bitings of that Worm that never dies If we cannot do these things as to be sure we cannot then what desperate Folly and Madness will it be for us to run into the commission of that Sin which will most certainly be avenged upon us by such dismal Punishments as these are Surely if we would sometimes consider how terrible God will be in his dealings with all injurious Persons and how dreadful the Works of his Vengeance will for ever

be upon them we durst not defraud our Brethren and do them Wrong so commonly as now we do Would any dare to turn aside the needy from Judgment and take away the Right from the Poor and make Widows their Prey and rob the Fatherless if they did but consider with themselves that a Father of the Fatherless and a Judg of the Widows is God in his holy Habitation and that from thence he sees the Oppression of the Poor and hears the sighing of the Needy and will at length arise for their defence and maintain their righteous Cause and plague all those that have harmed them wrongfully and dealt injuriously with them Would Men covet Fields and take them by violence and Houses and take them away and so oppress a Man and his House even a Man and his Heritage Could they be so very busy and industrious as they are in invading the Rights of others in defrauding the Brethren of their Goods and injuring them in their Possessions if they did but once take it into their Thoughts that they must be called to a strict account for these things before the righteous Judg of all the World who loves Justice and Judgment and will be sure to punish the wrong-doer and break in pieces the Oppressor and spoil the Soul of all those that have spoiled others How durst the subtile and the cunning Sinners hold fast Deceit and go on in their fraudulent and mischievous Courses How durst they deal so treacherously and endeavour by their circumventing Skill to go beyond and over-reach their Neighbours if they did but call to mind that God sees all their Fetches and their Devices all their lesser and greater Mysteries of Iniquity and will at last bring them into Judgment for all those wicked Arts and Stratagems which they have so often made use of to ensnare the ignorant and unwary and make them fall a Prey into their Nets Would Men covet an evil Covetousness to their Houses that they might set their Nests on high Would they go to raise their Families by that which they wrongfully take from others if they considered that thir ill-gotten Wealth will bring such a Curse of God along with it into their Houses as will root out all their Increase and quickly be the ruine and Dectruction of them and their Posterity Would they dare to suffer any unjust Gain to cleave to their Fingers would they not presently with all the haste imaginable shake their Hands from holding of it if they considered further that the heaping up of this is but the laying up of Vengeance in Store and the Treasuring up of Wrath for themselves against the great Day of Wrath Would men be tampering in the very Courts of Justice and be devising Subtilties there how they may Circumvent their Brethren and thrust them out of their apparent Rights if they considered that they must in another Court of Justice and at Gods own Tribunal give an Account of this and there have the Sentence of Eternal Condemnation Passed upon them for it Would any Persons have the boldness to be Givers or Takers of Bribes to Afflict the Innocent if they considered that a God of Infinite Justice looks upon them when their Hands are either opened to Receive or Stretched out to give the Wages of Unrighteousness and that he will be an Avenger of all those that use such foul and Indirect Practices against their Brethren With what Confidence could any men talk deceitfully and speak in any matter to wrest Judgment and pervert Equity if they did but bethink themselves that the God of Faithfulness and Truth knowes every word that is in their Mouths and that he utterly abhorrs all those that love Lying rather than to speak Righteousness and will at last Condemn them to those eternal Flames where they shall never be allowed one drop of Water to cool their false Tongues which have framed Deceit What shall be given unto thee or what shall be done unto thee thou false Tongue It is David's Question Psal 120.3 And his Answer to it in the next Verse is very dreadful Sharp Arrows of the Mighty with coals of Juniper That is as some of the Jewish Interpreters expound it piercing Plagues here and Hell fire hereafter This shall be the Portion of those men whose Tongues devise Mischief and who love all Devouring words that will do hurt What fearfulness and trembling would seize upon the false Swearers what an horrible dread would presently overwhelm them if they did but call to their remembrance that the just Lord hath taken notice of all their Perjuries of all those Oaths which they have Sworn falsely by his Name to the hurt and Prejudice of others And that he will not hold them Guiltless nor suffer them to go Unpunished for these hainous Crimes but will most certainly let loose the fierceness of his Anger and Displeasure upon them and pursue them with Wrath and Vengeance all their dayes here and throughout all the dayes of Eternity hereafter And as for the high and mighty Transgressors the haughty and imperious Sinners that have no regard at all either to the Laws of God or Man in this case but do their Brethren hurt with as great a Confidence as others do them good how would their Courage sink and their hearts fail them if they would but take it into their Consideration that there is a great God above them to whom they must be accountable for all the Hurt and Mischief they have done and that he will be no Respecter of their Persons in Judgment nor Spare them any more than the meanest Sinners in the day of his Wrath And to draw to a Conclusion for I think it is time so to do Let us all be perswaded very frequently and seriously to consider what this terrible place and Text of Scripture puts us in mind of That the Lord will be a sure and severe Avenger of all such as go beyond and Defraud their Brethren in any matter and let the fear of his Eternal Vengeance keep us within the strictest Rules of Equity and Justice and restrain us from doing the least Injury or wrong to others That we may escape that dreadful Wrath of his that is to come let us forsake all our over-reaching and fraudulent and deceitful Courses and let us do justly and live honestly and neither devise nor practise any harm against our Brethren and then when God comes to Judge the World he will not be an Avenger but a Rewarder of us then we may all with Chearfulness and Comfort stand before his Judgment Seat at the last and final Judgment of all the World for then the Judge of all the World will pass a joyful Sentence upon us and before the greatest and most solemn Assembly that ever appeared before all the Angels and all the Devils and before all the Good men and all the Bad men of all Generations will Pronounce us Blessed for evermore And God grant that we may all be so Just to one another now that the Lord may be Merciful to us all at that Day and Receive us up into his Heavenly Kingdom to be Partakers of all the Joys of it and there to make our Eternal abode in his most glorious and delightful Presence Amen FINIS