Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	speak_v	true_a	word_n	8,834	5	4.4618	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43652	A discourse to prove that the strongest temptations are conquerable by Christians, or, A sober defence of nature and grace against the cavils and excuses of loose inconsiderate men in a sermon preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London, and court of aldermen, the 14th of January, 1676/7 / by George Hickes ...	Hickes, George, 1642-1715.	1677 (1677)	Wing H1846; ESTC R34459	17,275	42

much to be condemned by the Verdict of right Reason as he that gives an Affront And therefore since 't is plain by these Examples that bare Reason and Moral Gallantry of Spirit have sometimes enabled Heathens and Mahumet ans to resist those Pains and Pleasures and Interests which as all men grant are the strongest Temptations to Sin is it not shameful Nonsense and horrid Impiety for Christians whom God without a just provocation never fails to support and assist with his Grace to magnifie the weakness of Humane Nature and the strength of these and the like Temptations with a Malicious design nor only to justifie themselves and excuse others but to Debauch Mankind to the utmost of their power and render the Christian the most grievous intollerable Religion that ever was in the World From whence I proceed to prove by Reason that no Trial or Temptation can happen to Men but such as is suitable to Humane Nature aided with Grace and such as any Christian that is true to his own endeavours and faithfully uses the restraining and assisting helps of God my not easily conquer and subdue My first Reason shall be taken from the consideration of the nature of Virtue and Grace which are nothing but an habitual power and ability in the Rational Soul of Man to bear all sensible Pain and Loss and forbear all sensible Pleasure and Profit out of love to Reason and the Righteous Laws of God This excellent spiritual power and ability of the Soul as far as it is Natural or acquired by our own Acts and Endeavours is of Moral consideration but as it is supernaturally wrought in the Soul or infus'd into it by the Spirit of God so far it is of Theological consideration and belongs not to Moralists but Divines But because Grace as all Men grant is the perfection of Nature and acquired Virtue is consistent with infus'd I have put them both together in one Definition in which Divines and Philosophers both agree But were it impossible or so exceeding difficult as some Men make it to resist Temptations this definition of Grace or Virtue would be but an useless fictitious notion and Divines and Philosophers from the beginning of the World would have been either Knaves or Fools All the excellent Sermons the former have made with so much eloquence and authority concerning Mortification Self-denial and Perseverance and all the brave Discourses the latter have penn'd with such admirable Reason and Rhetorick concerning Fortitude Temperance and Patience are idle unprofitable Harangues and as insignificant to the impotent Race and Nature of Man as the practical Rules of Dancing to a Cripple or a Lecture in Geometry to a natural Fool. In particular St. Paul who Magnifies the Grace of God so much in his Epistles and protests he took pleasure in bearing Reproaches Persecutions and Distresses for Christs sake This great Doctor and Saint who declar'd upon his own experience that he was alwaies most strong when he was most weak and that he could do and suffer all things through the strength he receiv'd from Christ must pass for a Cheat or Enthusiast if Men by the promised supports and assistance of Gods Grace be not able to resist Temptations unto Sin There was never yet in the Church of God a more apt Example to confirm this Doctrin I now maintain than this Apostle was for when the Jews and Gnosticks persecuted his righteous Soul with so much rage and violence as to make him call them the Messengers of Satan and compare the sharpness of the Persecution which they rais'd against him to a thorn in the flesh like a true Souldier of Christ he still resisted and held out but yet suspecting his own perseverance and fearing lest his Faith and Patience might at last fail he Prayed God thrice to remove the sharp Trials from him But God who knew whereof he was made better than he himself still continu'd them assuring the suffering Apostle that his concurrent Grace was sufficient for him and that his strength was made perfect in his weakness This relation the Apostle makes of himself is either true or false If false then he was either an Impostor or a Mad-man If he was Mad as the Festuses of this Age represent him to be how came he to speak the words of Truth and Soberness Hw came he to write such learned and profound Epistles and make such admirable defences for himself and the Christian Religion before so many Procurators and the Emperour himself at Rome How came he to be so very Wise upon occasion as to plead the Priviledge of a Roman Citizen and divide the Sadducees against the Pharisees when they had both conspir'd to take away his Life How came he to baffle the Jews out of their own Traditions and Prophecies to convert the greatest Cities of the World to the Christian Religion and acquire such a particular Veneration and Authority not only among the common People but among the Philosophers both of Greece and Rome To conclude how came the Church Universal to Canonize his Writings and how came they particularly to be ador'd by such gallant Men as Justin Origen Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria who were all as great Wits and Philosophers as ever the World could shew An Impostor likewise he could not be for then he must have acted for Glory or Gain For Glory he did not because he hath so often acknowledg'd his own Sinfulness Unworthiness and Insufficiency representing himself as the least of the Apostles and freely confessing that he was what he was by the Grace and designation of God And for Gain or secular Interest he could not act for in this Life he was of all Men most miserable his Apostolical Office rendring his whole Life but a continual Tragedy or Catalogue of Miseries as you may read 2 Cor. 11. from the 23. to the end of the Chapter This Story then I cited out of his Writings must be infallibly true and if it be then Virtue and Grace are real notions and by consequence no Tempation can happen to any Man but what Humane Nature is able to bear And lest you should think that God had a more particular care for this Apostle than other Christians and supply'd him with more particular aids than the rest of the Church you may find him exhorting the whole Church of Ephesus to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might you may find him charging Timothy to be strong in the grace that is in Christ and exhorting the whole City of the Philippians to work out their Salvation with care and sollicitude because God by his preventing and assisting Grace was working in their hearts both to Will and to Do. Perseverance or the working out of Salvation consists in nothing but in constantly resisting Temptations to Sin and there can be no sense in that nor any other such like Exhortations unless God as the Psalmist speaks be a present help in time of trouble and his