Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	know_v	speak_v	word_n	9,131	5	4.2861	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59559	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, in Bow-Church, on the feast of St. Michael, 1680 at the election of the Lord Mayor for the year ensuing / by John Sharpe ...	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1680 (1680)	Wing S2987; ESTC R17019	16,263	40

they repose in him He is one that in point of fair dealing between man and man is severe even to Scrupulosity and he would rather sit down with loss than serve his own ends by any practice that hath but a bad report that hath but even the appearance or suspicion of evil in it though in the mean time he knows that what is got by such practices is by some men accounted lawfull gain He is a man of great Candour and sweetness and obligingness in his behaviour But withall as on one hand he is carefull not to run himself into Inconveniences by his good nature So on the other hand the kindness and good-will he professeth to all about him is more than a compliment or a semblance of his countenance For his fair speeches are always attended with honest dealings And what he once promiseth he is punctual in making it good though it be to his own prejudice He is a man that loves a good Name and Reputation as well as any one and is extremely tender of it But yet he scorns to make use of any evil Arts either for the procuring or preserving it And consequently he is a man that hates all mean and servile compliance and will neither speak nor doe any thing against the sense of his mind for the humouring any Flattery and dissimulation he abhors and he dares speak his mind when he judges it fit and reasonable even though he knows the doing it will give offence And as he is perfectly averse to all Fawning and Flattery so he is above Envy and Detraction He never lessens another man to make himself greater nor looks upon the prosperity of his neighbour with an evil eye backbiting and carrying about idle stories is not the thing he lives by He puts a fair construction upon other mens words and actions and will rather conceal a real fault than make it worse in the reporting it He hopes and thinks the best of all men and rejoyceth in the happiness of those about him He doth as much good as he can and that good that is done by others he is so far from envying that he thanks God for it as if he had done it himself He is a man of great Plainness and Simplicity Apert and open and free in all his carriage You may always know where to have him for his words and his thoughts always go together And though he is carefull not to be lavish of his speech nor at all times to discover all his mind yet he is as carefull that what he doth speak shall be agreeable to truth and he so speaks it that those that hear him may take measures of his mind from it He is a man who though he be very watchfull of opportunities to doe himself good and very sagacious in spying dangers and avoiding them yet he never uses any indirect means either for the benefiting or securing himself He scorns to make advantages of any mans necessities Nor will he undermine another for the effecting of his own designs Deceit and Collusion are strangers to all his dealings Above all things he hates a Trick and in his account to be a man of Intrigues a cunning or a shrewd fellow is but a more gentile term for a knave In a word The designs he proposeth to himself are all Honest and Just and such as tend to the good of the Community as well as his Own but to no mans loss or hindrance And the means he useth for accomplishing these designs are all fair and Regular and so free is both his Heart and his Actions from all Imposture that he cares not if all the world were privy to them This is the man that is Vpright in his Conversation towards Men. The Man that with the wisdom of the Serpent joyns the Innocence and simplicity of the Dove But thus much of the Vpright man as a Private Person Let us now view him a little under a more conspicuous character Let us consider him as a Magistrate intrusted with the management of publick affairs Which is the Second particular we are to insist on under this head And here the Upright man is still the same acted by the same Principles pursuing still the same designs we have hitherto mentioned Onely his Vertues have another Sphere and another Object and therefore require another consideration The great thing he proposeth to himself in taking any Office upon him is the glory of God and the publick good The Honour and Dignity of the place and the other worldly advantages that may attend it are but secondary considerations with him The first is his main design which he steadily and constantly pursues throughout the whole Administration of his Office The other is never thought on but with subordination to the former And therefore acting from such Principles as these we may easily conclude him to be a man whose Counsels and actions are not steer'd by the wind of popular applause but by the sense of his duty He studies not to ingratiate himself with men but to discharge a good Conscience He is more carefull to be a Good-Magistrate than to be a Loved one though so happily are things contriv'd that in being the former he rarely fails of the latter The consequence of which is That he is a man of great Courage and Boldness and Resolution He dares to do whatsoever is fit and just and conducive to the publick good what discouragements soever he meet with Neither the menaces of the mighty nor the murmurings of the multitude can fright him from his Duty For he dreads none but God nor fears to doe any thing but what is misbecoming him But then he is a man that doth not resolve things hastily and upon the consideration of a few particulars but takes good advice and useth mature deliberation before he determines himself He doth nothing precipitately But weighs all things represented to him as impartially as he can His ears are open to all parties and he debates what is said without passion or prejudice or prepossession And he always considers more what is spoken than who it is that speaks it He is a man whom you cannot so much disoblige as by attempting to corrupt him Neither the regard of his profit nor his kindness to his friends can in matters of Right tempt him to act against his inward sense As to these things he is as blind as Justice herself and you may as soon draw the Sun from his line as him from the steady and strict paths of Righteousness He is a man that looks upon his Office rather as a burthen than a preferment And therefore he is wonderfully solicitous about the well discharging it His care and study is chiefly employed upon the publick and he rather suffers the miscarriage of his own affairs than that the community by his negligence should receive any prejudice While others are doing their own business he is watching for the common good for he always remembers that he

stick at it when he hath the least temptation to it The result of which is That he may commit all the villanies in the world and yet think himself as Innocent and his Actions as Commendable as if he had been never so Honest and Virtuous He therefore that is an Vpright man hath a serious and hearty sense of God and Religion upon his Spirit and is above all things carefull to preserve and increase that sense But then his conduct in this affair is much different from that of ordinary pretenders to Religion For he is a man that doth not content himself with a meer speculative belief or an outward Profession of the Truths of Religion but doth so far impress them on his heart that they influence his whole Life and Conversation He doth not think it sufficient to be Orthodox in his Opinions or to be a Member of a True Church or to be zealous in maintaining and promoting the Right way But he takes care to live as he believes to practise sutably to the profession he makes As he holds fast the Form of Godliness so he never fails to express the power of it in an Innocent and a Virtuous Life He is a man that in the whole Conduct of his Religious affairs minds Conscience more than any selfish consideration He takes not up his Principles either out of Humour or Passion To advance his Interest or to please a Party But he believes a thing because it is True and Professeth it because it is his Duty In matters of Religion he hath the indifference of a Traveller whose great concernment is to arrive at his Journeys end but for the way that leads thither be it high or low all is one to him so long as he is but certain that it is the Right way And as he doth not chuse his Religion out of worldly considerations so neither doth he quit it upon such But is resolute and constant in bearing witness to the Truth against all opposition whatsoever As he doth not make show of his Religion the more when it is in fashion and when it may prove advantagious to him so neither doth he practise it the less when it may prove Ignominious or Dangerous He is obstinately Tenacious of his Principles when he knows them to be good and prepared to endure the utmost extremities rather than violate the Laws and Dictates of his Conscience He is a man that thinks Religion too Sacred a thing to be prostituted to mean purposes and therefore he never useth it as an Instrument for the serving a turn never makes it a Cloak for the covering a private end though he were sure he could compass his designs by it He knows that the greatest Impostures have laid hid under this mask and by such Artifices God hath been often made a Patron of the most horrid villanies He is a man that doth not place his Religion in outward forms and services or in little cheap duties that cost him nothing He hath a nobler sense of God than to think that such things can alone recommend us to him And therefore his principal concernment is about the great Indispensable Duties of Christianity The weightier matters of the Law Justice and Mercy and Faith He hath the everlasting Notions and differences of Good and Evil deeply ingraven in his heart and in the practising or the avoiding them he chiefly lays out himself He is a man that doth not pick and chuse out of Gods Commandments which to observe to the neglect of the rest but endeavours Uprightly and Sincerely to observe them all He calls no sin little because his temper inclines him to it or the course of his Life leads him more frequently into the Temptations of it But he hath an hearty Uniform Aversion to every thing that is Evil. He holds no secret friendship or correspondence with any Enemy of God but fights as resolutely against his most agreeable and most gainfull sins as those that he hath less Temptation to upon those accounts He is a hearty enemy to all Factions in Religion as knowing the life and soul of Christianity is often eaten out by them All dividing Principles he Abhors and as much as he loves Truth he is not less concerned for Peace And he is better pleased with one Instance of his Charity in Composing or his Zeal in Suppressing Religious differences than with twenty of his Skill and Abilities in disputing them For he knows that LOVE is more acceptable to God than a right Opinion and to be a Martyr rather than divide and rend the Church is not less Glorious than to be a Martyr for refusing to offer Sacrifice to Idols Lastly He is a man Religious without noise and uses no little Arts to make his Piety taken notice of in the World For he seeks not the praise of Men in any thing he doth but studies to approve himself to God onely And therefore he is as carefull of his thoughts as of his actions and hath the fame fear of God and regard of his duty when no man sees him as when he is in the most publick places These are the great strokes of Vprightness as to Religion And whoever makes good these Characters may unquestionably conclude of himself that he is an Honest man to God-ward A true Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile Come we now in the second place To take a view of the Vpright man in his civil conversation To give some account of him with reference to his carriage and demeanour amongst men And here again we must consider him under two capacities as a Private person and as a Magistrate And First As a Private person The general Rule by which he frames and modells his whole conversation is such a prudent and diligent care of himself and his own good as is not onely consistent with but doth effectually tend to promote the Good and Happiness of all others that he deals with This is the fundamental Principle which he lays down to observe in all his commerce with Mankind For he considers that every man in the world hath a right to be happy as well as himself And he considers that as things are so contriv'd that he cannot be Happy without the assistance of others So it is infinitely reasonable that he in like manner should contribute his endeavours to the making them Happy also These now being the main principles of his mind he takes care in his whole conversation that his Actions and Carriage be sutable to them and bear some proportion with them And therefore we may be sure that he is a man exactly Just in all his dealings and would not knowingly do the least wrong or injury to any though he could gain never so much by it and were he never so secure that he could do it without discovery He is a man that where he is trusted is faithfull to the uttermost Never making advantages of mens credulity nor abusing the confidence