Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	abide_v	blessing_n	great_a	12	3	2.0729	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76021	Unum necessarium, or, The great duty of a Christian in two tracts : the one, Of adhering to God, written in Latin, by Albertus Magnus, the other, Of the love of God, written in high- Dutch, by John Staupitz / both faithfully translated into English for the promoting of primitive Christianity.; De adhaerendo Deo. English. 1692	Albertus, Magnus, Saint, 1193?-1280.; Johannes von Kastl, 15th cent.; Staupitz, Johann von, d. 1524.	1692 (1692)	Wing A878; ESTC R42992	62,774	183

enjoyest or expectest is handed to thee Believe in him I say and trust in him Is he not the Essential Word of God and the Truth it self Must not he forsake and deny himself before he can forsake or deny thee And would it not be a plain denying of himself in case he should not perform and make good his Fathers Promise to thee Is it not he that made thee in thy first Creation Is it not he that hath redeemed thee in the second Birth or Regeneration Is it not he that hath wholely and without reserve offered up himself to his Heavenly Father for thee and made himself one with thee by feeding thee with his Flesh and Blood to Eternal Lifes CHAP. III. Concerning the Promise of the Blessing in Jesus Christ GOd promised to Abraham that in his Seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed and that out of his Seed even of Isaac Christ should be born and yet withal God commanded him to slay and offer up this his Son Isaak Abraham was obedient to the Divine Command and notwithstanding all Objections crowding in upon him firmly believ'd Gods Promise without the least staggering or being sollicitous how the Promise could be fulfilled if he should slay his Son Isaak in his youth but cast all his care upon God not doubting but he would know how to make good his own Word and perform his Promise O what a gracious Promise was this what a strong and unquestionable assurance and what a gracious paternal Performance and Accomplishment What God then promised he hath since made good and performed for we have seen his Glory saith St. John chap. 1.14 the Glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father full of Grace and Truth Who could be more sure to perform this for us than he who is Truth it self And who besides is bound to us in such an intimate Tye of the highest Love that he rather chose to die for us than that we should fail or fall short of the least of his Fathers Promises Wherefore it is impossible for thee to believe in Christ but that at the same time thou must be Blessed of God for Heaven and Earth may pass away but the Word of God abides for ever Alas What is it that blinds us poor wretched Creatures We pretend to believe That God is become Man and yet doubt of the performance of the Blessing annext to it by God himself What greater Affront can we put upon Eternal Truth Or what greater Ingratitude can we express to the unutterable Love of God It is not enough therefore for us to believe that God is become Man but we must also believe that it was done for our Good and Benefit and that by his Incarnation he has put us in possession of whatsoever has been promis'd to us Neither may we desire or look for our Salvation Blessing Grace and Mercy from any one but from him alone and besides him take in no other comfort whatsoever This is it truly and indeed to believe in Christ which is only youchsafed to Gods blessed ones Herein Christians must daily exercise themselves try themselves and view themselves and in case they find themselves doubtful in any thing they must cry to God for the strengthning and increasing of their Faith For these two things to believe and earnestly to desire it are very near of kin to each other But because we have no strong desire to believe therefore neither do we pray heartily for it And thus he who is yet weak in Faith may take comfort from the fervent desire he hath to believe which alone will approve him before God In a word believe in Christ or at least desire firmly to believe in him and then doubt no further but that thou art blessed by him and in him CHAP. IV. Concerning the Promise of our being enlightened by Christ THe Prophet Jeremy declares that they who believe in Christ shall not need any Teacher to instruct them how to believe in God They shall not teach every Man his Brother faith God Jer. 31.33 34. saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them and that I will forgive their Iniquities and will remember their Sins no more yea what is more they shall know my Will and do it for I will put my Law in their inward Parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my People For they believe in the Light walk in the Light and are children of the Light They have Christ the Promised Messiah in whom God hath placed his word and who hath spoke unto them whatsoever God hath commanded him and whosoever will not hearken unto but despise the Words which he shall speak in my Name I will dequire it at his hands Deut. 18.18 19. To him we must draw near and apply our selves so shall not our Faces be ashamed Him we must follow so shall we not walk in darkness but have the Light of Life which not only enlighteneth us but also quickens and makes us alive excites us to all that is good inflames us with the Divine Love and lifting us above and out of our selves draws us into himself so that we become extinguisht in our selves but flaming and enlightned in him aad delivered from all Blindness and Error Neither indeed is it possible that the Children of Light i. e. such who walk in the Light should ever err or go astray Now this Light is found in Faith i.e. in Christ Wherefore it follows that they who do not believe in Christ walk in Darkness and are already judged to Eternal Darkness and Damned whereas they who believe in Christ are and shall be enlightened here and hereafter CHAP. V. Concerning the Assurance of our being Eternally Foreseen and Elected of God IF any Man should become troubled and sollicitous about or doubtful of his Eternal Election he may easily satisfie himself from the Information God hath given him Whosoever Believes in Christ fears no condemnation and shall certainly be saved he is one of the Elect foreseen and fore-ordained to Salvation and hath his Name writ in the Book of Life But he who doth not Believe in Christ as was hinted before in John 3.15 18. he is already condemned because he doth not believe in the Name of the only begotten Son of God For whosoever is foreknown the same is also predestinated to a Conformity with the Image of the Son of God and is called to the Christian Faith Justifyed and Glorifyed Rom. 8 29. on the other hand whosoever is not found in the Faith of Christ he is not predestinated to Salvation What needs therefore any further questioning about the matter We have here a clear and plain Information that if we believe in Christ then we have Christ and together with him Salvation and shall never perish These are they whom the Father hath drawn to Christ to the end that he might

ever to attain the supream Bliss and Beatitude but with the help of Love and Desire For Love is the true and genuine life of the Soul the Wedding-Garment and its utmost perfection in which all the Law John 13.34 Ch. 15.7 and the Prophets yea and our Lord's Commandment too are included as being the Center and Substance of them all And therefore St. Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Romans That Love is the fullfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 1 Tim. 1.5 And in his first Epistle to Timothy That Charity is the end of the Cemmandment CHAP. XIII The Qualifications of true Prayer and the usefulness thereof and how the Heart is to be recollected and gathered up into it self AND forasmuch as we of our selves are altogether insufficient for these and all other good things and that we cannot of our selves render any thing to our Lord God from whom alone proceeds all good which was not his own before save one thing only according to what he himself with his Blessed Mouth and Example hath been pleas'd to instruct us viz. That we in all Cases and Events have continual recourse to Prayer as being Guilty Miserable Poor Beggars Weak Destitute Subjects Servants and Sons and wholly desolate in our selves and that we with the most humble prostration of our mind in Fear and Love recollectedly and composedly with a deliberate true naked affection of shame with earnest desire and fervency with inward groans of the Heart and with simplicity and sincerity of Mind should supplicate him and lay open before him with full Confidence all our impending dangers and readily securely and nakedly commit resign and offer up our selves totally and faithfully to him to our very last breath as being truly and entirely his reserving nothing to our selves that so the saying of the Blessed Father Isaak may be fulfilled in us In Cassian collat 10. c. 6. who speaking of this king of Prayer saith Then it is that we shall be one in God and our Lord God alone shall be all in all in us when that perfect Love wherewith he hath first loved us shall become the Love and Affection of our our Love all our desire all our study and our endeavour and lastly all our Thoughts yea and every thing that we see speak or hope for shall be God and when that Unity which now is between the Father and the Son and between the Son and the Father shall be transfus'd into our Sence and Mind to that degree That as he Loves us with a sincere pure and unchangeable Love So we also may be joyned to him by a perpetual and inseparable dilection being so intimately united to him that whatsoever we hope whatsoever we understand whatsoever we speak and pray for may be God This therefore must be the Purpose this the endeavour and end of a truly Spiritual Man to be found worthy to possess the Image of the future Beatitude in this Corruptible Body and to obtain a foretaste of that Celestial Bliss Conversation and Glory even in this Transitory Life This is the end of all Perfection that the Mind being purified from all the Dregs of Carnality may be sublimed to that pitch of Spirituality That its whole Conversation and all the outgoings of the Heart be nothing else but one continual never ceasing Prayer And when the Mind thus having shak'd off its Earthly Defilements and Intanglements Collat. 9. c. 5. doth breath out it self to God in whom alone the intention of a Spiritual Man ought always to be fixed from which Soveraign Good the least Separation ought to be look'd upon as present Death and the most pernicious Destruction and that she the Mind being well founded and rooted in foregoing Peace and Tranquility and set loose from the Bands of all Carnal Passions and by a most resolute and tenacious purpose cleaves to that one Soveraign Good then I say she will be able to fulfil that Command of the Apostle 1 Thes 5.17 Pray without ceasing and in all place 1. Tim. 2.8 lifting up Holy Hands without Wrath and doubting For the Sence of the Mind being as it were wholly absorpt by this Purity and Transformed from its Earthly State into a Spiritual or Angelical likeness in this condition whatsoever she takes in whatsoever she handles whatsoever she does will be the purest and truest Prayer Wherefore if thou shalt without interruption continue this Exercise as has been here set down from the beginning it will be as easie and obvious to thee in thy introversion and Recollection to contemplate and enjoy as it is for thee to live in Nature CHAP. XIV In all Judgments that are made of us we are still to have Recourse to the Testimony of our Conscience MOreover to attain to this Spiritual Perfection Purity and Tranquillity of Mind in God it will be of no small Advantage to us that in all things which may be spoke or judged of us or acted towards us we always silently betake our selves to the inmost retreat of our Minds and there being abstracted from all other things and totally recollected within our selves place our selves before the Tribunal of Truth within us where we shall plainly find and see that it is not only of no Advantage but a great hinderance to us to be Praised and Honoured from without when according to the knowledge of Truth in our selves we are indeed culpable and guilty And as in this Case it is of no Advantage at all to a Man to be Praised outwardly by Men when his Conscience accuseth him within so neither on the contrary is it any the least hurt or hinderance to a Man if he be despised reviled blamed and persecuted from without when he is inwardly innocent unreproveable and harmless Yea rather he hath great Reason in Patience silence and Peace to rejoyce in the Lord on this account forasmuch as no adversity can hurt where iniquity doth not prevail And as no Wickedness ever goes unpunished so no good can be without its reward Neither let us be willing with Hypocrites to expect or receive our Reward or Recompence from Men but of our Lord God alone not at present but hereafter not in this Transitory time but in Eternity It is evident therefore that there is nothing of greater Moment or better for us than alway in every Tribulation and Event to retire to the inmost secret of our Minds and there to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ himself who is our helper in Temptations and Tribulations and there to be humbled before him Confessing our Sins and to Praise God and our Father who as he bruises and chastens so he also Comforts and Heals us And over and ●bove all this to take and accept of all and every thing readily and securely happening to our selves or others whether Prosperous or Adverse with an even quiet Temper of Mind from the Hand of his unerring Providence and orderly disposing of all Things from the faithful

his profit or loss pleasing or displeasing when he daily condemns himself and judgeth no body but himself only then without doubt God hath taken up his abode in him and he is top and brimful of God Wherefore it is a great Grace and Mercy of God and not in the least and effect of his wrath when he makes us see that there is no Truth no Faith no constant Love upon Earth when he manifestly discovers to a Man that those who are bound to love him and to return Good for Evil do requite him Evil for his Good Unfaithfulness for Love for this is the true and ready way by which God from Heaven through his special Grace empties Flesh of Flesh and fastens Spirit to Spirit Wherefore beg thou of God that he would be pleased to empty thee of thy self and of all Creatures and take it for a special friendly sure Token of the Love of God towards thee when that becomes unloving or displeasing to thee what at any time thou hast loved out of measure For as long as thou cleavest to any thing that is not God thou must needs be and continue uncertain whether God be in thee or no and tho he may be in thee without thy Knowledg yet will he never clearly come unto thee and fully manifest himself in thee until all other Loves be rid out of thy heart This is that which St. Paul declares when he saith 1 Cor. 3.11 12 13. That they who build Stubble Hay and Wood upon the saving Foundation shall indeed be Saved because they love God above all things yet no otherwise but so as by Fire and that for this reason because they love other things besides and together with God but they who build fine Gold Silver and pretious Stones which are not subject to Rust and are refin'd and purged from all dross and Refuse upon the true Foundation viz. The Love of God above all things they need not to pass the fire because they love God only in the same manner as he will be loved of his most beloved friends of whom he requires according to the Gospel-Doctrine that they hate their Father and Mother their Brothers and Sisters yea even their own Souls Now they who do love at this rate they have escap'd from and are out of the reach of Hell forasmuch as they have loved God above all things They would also be rid of all Temporal Sufferings were it not that their bodily Sufferings did above measure conduce to their Eternal Joy and that their hearts are to that degree inflamed with the Love of God that they desire nothing more or higher than as far as is possible to be made conformable to the Suffering Lamb of God in all things They also whose Love is arrived at this high pitch have nothing which they cleave unto but an entire poor Spirit wherefore also they suffer nothing here upon Earth save only Love-Sufferings as also our Lord Jesus endured no other Sufferings save those of Love For out of Love alone was he conceived born circumcised driven from his abode subject to Joseph Baptized Tempted out of Love alone he preached wrought Miracles broke his Rest and Sleep Out of singular transcendent great Love he left his most Holy Mother his Dearest Friend his Apostles sweat Blood was in an Agony was seised smitten on the Face endur'd false Witness perverse Judgment Mockings Scourgings condemning to Death the weight and bitterness of the Cross and last of all the most cruel and painful Death Wherefore to him be Praise Honour and Thanksgiving now and at all times even for ever and ever Amen An. Dom. 1518. Jesus thine I am save me B.J. von staupitz The Second TREATISE Concerning the Holy Christian Faith By Dr. John Von Staupitz THE PREFACE TO THE READER IT is a Lamentable Thing That Christians since the Death and Passion of Christ and the Apostles Decease are fallen into so great an Ignorance of Christ and his true Faith out of which no Man can be saved And though it be difficult to dispute about the established and confirmed Faith yet Brotherly Love requires every one to give his Neighbour all the Information Help and Assistance he can that the Foundation of all Good and the Root of all Vertue the only Comfort of the Elect viz. The firm Hope and true Faith in Christ may not perish or be lost Wherefore I think my self oblig'd and bound in Duty by vertue of my Function and Calling to feed the Hungry with the Word of God or rather to lead and point them to the said Food and accordingly trusting in God I have here undertaken to write simply of the Faith in Christ He that can do better let him set about it all to the Glory of God and the Edification and Amendment of his Neighbour Amen CHAP. I. Of the Obligation and Duty that lies upon us to believe and of the Beginning of the Christian Faith THere is no Man I hope so dark and blind in his understanding as not to know that every one is bound in duty to believe the infallible Truth which is god himself and that God is highly dishonoured and the Truth blasphemed when this due Faith is not given to him It is an unbecoming thing for one honest man not to believe another in all reasonable things yet forasmuch as there is no express command upon us so to do because the Psalmist tells us Psal 116.11 That all Men are Lyars this Earthly Faith is left to a mans free Will and pleasure whether he will believe or no forasmuch as they are only the Words of meer Men. But Gods Word we must and are bound always to believe because it is the Truth it self All Understandings must deliver themselves Captives to the same and all hearts must assent to it be the matters never so high above our reach and understandings yet we must believe them because God hath spoken them without any further questioning or requiring any further proof or reason of them This is the Beginning of Faith without which no Man can please God CHAP. II. Of the Duty and Necessity of Faith in Christ OUr Heavenly Father has revealed much Truth to his Elect and promised to them great Grace and many Good things and thereby in Duty bound them forasmuch as he is the Eternal Truth undoubtedly to believe and look for the same at his hands Whosoever we are whether Good or Bad Jews or Gentiles the Divine Promise neither can nor may be procur'd or hastened by our Vertues or hindred by our sins but continues eternally unchangeable and constant in it's Truth Wherefore in order to our receiving the Gifts and Graces of God by whatsoever Names they are called Faith in Christ is absolutely necessary whereby we are assured of all the Divine Promises Believe thou therefore that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and doubt not in the least but that in him through him and for his sake all the Good thou