Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	lead_v	spirit_n	1,730	5	5.1942	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66686	The mysterie of God, concerning the whole creation, mankinde To be made known to every man and vvoman, after seaven dispensations and seasons of time are passed over. According to the councell of God, revealed to his servants. By Gerrard Winstanley.	Winstanley, Gerrard, b. 1609.	1649 (1649)	Wing W3048; ESTC R218568	33,974	70

they called the man full of errors that deceived the people So now the Church is at a stand and the worship is partly light and partly dark some resting upon the bare letter according to the example of Christ and the Apostles only which is a worship after the flesh and was true and was of God in the time of its dispensation And others do acknowledg God not exemplarily but by the faith the name and anointing of Jesus Christ ruling teaching acting and dwelling in them therefore think it not strange though some old professors and the book-hirelings especially be offended hereat and brand the Saints for men full of errors and seeke to suppresse their testimony it was so then it will be so now for the same spirit of the world the Serpent does still persecute the same anointing of God in this as in the former dispensation but you Saints of God be patient waite upon God this troubled sea the Serpent shall not over-whelm you for stronger is he that is in you then he that is in the world rejoyce the time of your redemption drawes neere And againe think it not strange to see many of the Saints of God at a stand in a wildernes at a losse and so waiting upon God to discover himself to them many are like the tide at full Sea which stands a little before the water runs either way and assure your selves I know what I speak you must be dead to your customes before you can run in the Sea of truth or the River of the water of life some walk still according to example and have either seene nothing or very little of the anointing in them and some walk more in spirit and truth as the same anointing of the Father which dwells bodily in Christ teacheth them and leadeth them into all truth The same anointing unites Christ and the Saints and makes them but one mysticall body I pray not for these alone saith Christ but for all that shall believe through their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one that is in thee who art the only pure and holy being Secondly not that under this dispensation is the time that the elect which is so much spoken of in the Scriptures are to be gathered into one City and perfected and this anointing is the Angell which God hath sent forth in these last dayes to gather together his elect from one end of heaven to the other or out of every nation kindred tongue people in the earth And where it is said that God will send forth not his Angel but his Angels to gather his elect together it points out the severall measures or dispensations of the anointing to every Saint as God will according to the measure of the guift of Christ Now sometime God calls his elect by the name of one in the singular number and hereby God declares his first born Jesus Christ who is the head in the name of the whole body As the Prophet writes behold my Servant whom I have chosen mine elect in whom my soule delighteth God hath not chosen the Serpent or creature-invention to dwel in flesh for this he hath rejected and takes no delight in But he hath chosen the anointing or his own power and name to dwell in flesh and this he delights in therefore Jesus the anointed is called the Son of God in whom he is well pleased And sometimes God calls his elect in the plurall number as many and then he declares the mysticall body or the City Sion or those that he hath given to Christ and whose names are written in the Lambs book And in this 6. generall dispensation these only shall be gathered into the City and whosoever is not writ in the Lambs book of life shall not enter in at this time and season of the Father though there is a time and season known to the Father when they shall be healed likewise and enter in and eat of the heavenly Manna the tree of life that is in the middle of the City Now this City Sion which consists of head and members Jesus Christ and his Saints who are all baptized into and knit together by one spirit of God the anointing And this City God will redeeme first or he will subdue the Serpent under the feet of this his Son first All that do his Commandements that is have faith and love these shall enter into the City but the fearfull and unbeleevers murderers Idolaters and every one that loveth and maketh a lie are without and are cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death or the death of the Serpent and the Serpent ruling in man is the first death which God redeemes us from All those that were not found writ in the Lambs book of life were cast into the lake of fire Or as Mathew calls it into everlasting fire Or as Matthew calls it into everlasting fire and shall lie under that dispensation of wrath for ever that is all the time of this dispensation or till the day of judgement be ended that the Serpent Death and Hell are cast into the Lake of fire and that there shall no more curse lie upon the Creature but from the judgement seat or Throne of God the whole Creation being redeemed shall flow forth a pure River of the water of life for every Dispensation is called a full period or tearme of time and an everlasting season All this time that God is gathering together his elect he hath given a time times and halfe time to the Serpent Which in those threefold shapes and a halfe or in those three dayes and halfe he is called the Beast or the Whore and this time is given him to make warre and to fight against the Prince of Princes and his Saints and to overcome them and to waste and destroy the holy people mightily And this appointed time is the yeare wherein the Beast lives and God gives all advantages to the Beast as riches outward liberty worldly power and generally humane Authority into his hand And puts no weapons into the hands of his Saints but faith or the anointing to fight against the reproaches slanders oppressions poverties weaknesse prisons and the multitude of temptations which the Beast through her wit malice and power casts upon the Saints like a flood of water to drowne them And to overthrow the work of God by great hand if it were possible Likewise the Serpent stirs up some whom she deceives to be seeming professors outwardly religious having a form of godlinesse but through hypocrisie pride and selfishnesse might dishonour God discourage the tender Lambs of Christ and bring an ill report upon the wayes of God And hence it is

Master it wil be bitternesse in the belly as it was to him for the jealousie of the Lord shall burn hot against thee so that thou shalt cal upon the mountains to cover thee from his presence and wish that thou hadst never been born and all the sorrowes spoke of in Scripture shall overtake thee and such presumptuous sinners as thou art and thy joy shall be turned into mourning and thou shalt be cast into the everlasting fire which God hath prepared and appointed for the Serpent and his seed or for the Devil and his Angels and while thou art in it the worm of thy gnawing conscience shall never die nor the fire of Gods wrath or the sense of his anger upon thee shall never goe out and shall be a pain more intollerable then the plucking out of the right eye or the cutting off the right hand But now lest scruples should arise in others as though I writ contradictions or as though I made God changeable First to bid a sinner depart into everlasting fire and yet afterwards take him out again Now to give answer hereunto First know that this was and is the great mystery worke and counsell of God after he had made a visible creature in a pure Being distinct from himselfe his purpose being to destroy all the inventions and actings of this creature that did spring up and arise from the creatures Being as a creature and not from Gods acting in the creature and God foresaw that the first buddings of this creature would be a desire to maintain it Selfe or Creature-Being and so cast God off therefore God made him under a Law that if his creature did consent to that selfish desire he should die if not he should have lived a pure Being still though distinct from God yet under his protection as a Creator Now every thing that is in or about the Creature that is of God shall stand but every thing that is in or from the creature that is not of God shall fall and perish Therefore to proceed a little further that this truth may shine in its own beauty God does teach me to see that every action or dispensation of God is called a Spirit or an Angel and every action or aspiring principle that rise up in Adam which led him to disobedience it pleased God that it should have a Being and likewise be called a Spirit but it is a dead Being and a Spirit of darknesse quite opposite to the God of Light and Life and God gives it the name of Serpent Dragon Murtherer wicked one and unclean Spirit because it twisted it selfe into the middle of the Creation and was an aspiring to be like God but God did not make the nature of it for it was the first fruits of a created Being without God Now God is pleased to make known himself in divers dispensations in the carrying on of this great work of his As first he declares himselfe by way of a Law In the day thou eatest thou shalt die now this Law though it was holy just and good yet it was a killing word or the killing Letter for it took hold of Adams disobedience and flew him so that word Thou shalt dye because flesh for all flesh broke the Covenant in Adam and all flesh died and all humane flesh was cast under that dispensation of death and the more we stirre to climb up to God by the workes of the Law the more we intangle our selves in death for by the workes of the law no flesh shall be saved And here is two murtherers which mankind is to be delivered from before it can live again First this word of the Law which is holy just and good which ties the creature onely to acknowledge the Being of God and no other when the creature began to minde another Being this righteous Law killed him for it is not the King but the Kings Law that hangs an offender and if the rigorous Law stands still in force no flesh can be saved because every man and woman are selfish and minds a sinfull Being opposite to God therefore the condemning power of the Law is to be taken away The second murtherer is the Creatures own invention or aspiring spirit to be as God knowing good and evill or to maintain Selfe and this killed the creature and threw him under the curse of the righteous Law because this would be a Being equall with God and acknowledge another being besides God whereas there is no other righteous Being to be acknowledged but onely God or what is in God or God in it Now in the first discovery of Gods counsell and purpose to the Creature if he be redeemed this compound murtherer must be cast out of heaven by a strong hand and out-stretched arm of God so that the Being of God might be preserved the Law of God kept pure and yet fallen man redeemed As first this dispensation of death Do this and live Do not this and die must be cast out of Heaven that is out of Gods hand and God must not in the redeeming of him appeare to the creature under that dispensation for if he doe it will still hold the lost creature under death and bondage and if the creature were made pure again and left still to deale with the Law by his created strength onely as Adam was truly he would fall again for a meere created strength being distinct from God the Creator would fall again for no Being can stand pure but such a created Being as God is pleased to dwell bodily in for every opposite Being will seek to advance it selfe Therefore if God redeem his creature from death he must appeare absolutely a God of love under no other dispensation but the law of love doing all in and for the creature and thus in the Gospel he does for this is the Spirit that quickens and saves the creature and when this Word of Love was made Flesh it was the first discovery from God to assure the creature of his redemption from death and this was when Jesus Christ or God was manifested in flesh working doing suffering all things for the creature pardoning accepting and taking the creature freely into communion with God by Gods own power and for his own name sake promising never to remember disobediences any more but would blot out that hand-writing the Law of Doe and live not doe and die And now the killing letter or murderer is cast out of heaven out of Gods hand God will never have that to stand between him and his creature any more but hee himselfe who is the Law of Love even Love it selfe will dwell and rule a King of Righteousnesse in the Creature and be the Creatures wisdome strength life joy and comfort and his All in All But secondly the other murderer which is worse then this must be cast out of heaven too or else the creature cannot live and that is the Serpent or this

THE MYSTERIE OF GOD Concerning the whole Creation MANKINDE TO BE Made known to every man and VVoman after seaven Dispensations and Seasons of Time are passed over According to the COUNCELL of GOD Revealed to his Servants By Gerrard Winstanley Psal. 145. 13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy Dominion endureth throughout all generations Rom. 11. 26. And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer that shall turn away ungodlines from Iacob London Printed by I. C. for Giles Calvert at the Black-spread-Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1649. To my Beloved Countrey-men of the County of LANCASTER DEar Country men when some of you see my name subscribed to this ensuing Discourse you may wonder at it and it may be despise me in your heart as Davids Brethren despised him and told him it was the pride of his heart to come into the Battell c. but know that Gods works are not like mens he doth not alwaies take the wise the learned the rich of the world to manifest himself in and through them to others but he chuseth the despised the unlearned the poor the nothings of the world and fills them with the good things of himself when as he sends the empty away I have writ nothing but what was given me of my Father and at the first beholding of this Mystery it appeared to be so high above my reach that I was confounded and lost in my spirit but God whom I believe is my teacher for I have joy and rest in him left me not in bondage but set me at liberty and caused me to see much glory in these following truths and when God works none can hinder It may be some things herein may seeme very strange at the first reading and you may crie out an error an error for this is usuall when the flesh cannot apprehend and be are a truth of God it brands it for an error and rejects it as a wicked thing as the Jewes because they could not behold God in Christ did breake out in bitternesse of spirit against Christ calling him a deceiver and that he preached blasphemy and error never rested till they had killed him our Lord Christ told his disciples that he had many things to speak to them but they were not able to bear them as yet And this I speak in experience that many truths of God wherein I now see beauty my heart at the first hearing rose against them and could not beare them and therefore if what I have writ meet with such hard entertainment in any of your hearts it is no wonder for I know that the flesh that is in you lusts after envy but it is part of your bondage which God will deliver you from in due time You shall finde that I call the whole power of darknesse by the name Serpent which dwells in and hath taken every man and woman captive and that God through his Sonne Christ will redeeme his own workmanship mankinde from it and destroy the Serpent onely but do not count this a slight thing for when God lets you see into the Mystery of this iniquity in the least degree of it it will prove too hard for you and you will be nothing but death curse and misery Therefore as you desire that God would manifest love to you and make you free be not offended to hear that God who is love it self hath a season to manifest his love to others that are lost and quicken them that were killed while you were made alive and that fell further under death when you that were lost are redeemed an houre or two before them Iesus Christ shed his bloud wilingly for them that did put him to death and the Saints of God rejoyced that Paul their bitter persecutor was received to mercy with themselves Why then should you be offended and thinke you are miserable if your persecutors and enemies should in Gods time be delivered from under the curse and partake of the glory of the City together with you It is much for the glory of God for him to redeeme not part onely but all mankinde from death which his own hands made it is his revealed will so to do therefore let it be your joy that the will of your Father is and shall be fulfilled and do not thinke the Saints are made unhappy and God dishonored if he heale them that were lost and that did not enter into the City in the beginning of the great day of judgment for as he is honored in saving you of the Citie that were lost so he will be honored in redeeming these that lye under the power of the second death and that entred not into the City seeing there was no difference between you and them till the will of God made the difference in taking you at the first and leaving them till the last houre for Christ gave himself a ransome for all to be revealed in due time God doth not reveale his love to all at one time but when he will and God hath some thing to do after the resurrection as he hath and will yet do much before that day Well I leave not questioning but if any of you be unsatisfied with what I have writ that you will speak to me and I hope God will be my wisdom and strength to confirme it since I had writ it I met with more Scriptures to confirme it so that it is not a spirit of private fancie but it is agreeable to the written Word Farwell Your Country-man that loves the life of your Soule Gerrard Winstanley These Particulars and such like are contained in this Discourse VVHat Mankinde was is and shall be What the Serpent is that caused Adams fall and whence he sprang The Serpent is not Gods Creature What the bondage of death is that Adam or all mankind lies under What the good and what the bad Angels are God hath cast the twofold murderer out of heaven and what that is God will subdue the Serpent not under part but under the whole Creation Mankinde When all creatures except Man are to be dissolved into nothing Seven Dispensations which God will have Mankind to passe through before he subdue the Serpent under the feet thereof and what they are The Citie Sion or the Elect are in gathering up to God in six of those dispensations in every season of time and in the seventh the mystery of God shall be finished and not till then The Citie Sion or the Elect shall first be taken up to God afterwards they that were cast into everlasting fire while the Elect were in gathering shall be redeemed and partake of the glory of the Citie What is meant by everlasting fire and the word for ever and ever so often used in Scripture God is honoured in the salvation of Beleevers and in the losse and shame of unbeleevers Gods judging the serpent is mankinds redemption What the