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	way_n	word_n	1,912	5	3.9834	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26807	A short description of the blessed place and state of the saints above in a discourse upon the words of Our Blessed Saviour, John XIV, 2, in my father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you / by William Bates.	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1687 (1687)	Wing B1125; ESTC R25866	33,196	119

God the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Love brought him down from his Throne in Heaven where he was ador'd by the Angels and united him to our nature in our lowly state in order to the raising us to his Kingdom and uniting us to himself in Glory Love unvaluable and incomparable If Solomon upon God's descending in a Cloud to take possession of the Temple was surpriz'd with heavenly astonishment But will God indeed dwell on Earth with infinite more cause have we considering the incarnation of the Son of God to say Will God indeed dwell on Earth For what was the appearance of a Vapour that might be easily dispell'd to the coming of Jesus Christ into the World in whom the Fulness of the Godhead dwelt substantially What is so worthy of reverence and admiration New Things suspend the actings of the mind glorious Things overwhelm the Faculty and never was there so rare and excelling an Object This so signal and amazing Effect of our Saviour's Love gives assurance to Christians that he will take them to an everlasting Communion with himself in Glory As 't is more for a Prince to live with a private Person in a Cottage with complacency than to receive that Person into his Court and invest him with Honour The Love of our Saviour never abated to his Disciples when he was in view of Death with its troops of Terrors 't is said Having lov'd his own he lov'd them to the end And after his Resurrection to a Heavenly Life he exprest the same dear affection Go to my Brethren a stile as high as Love can rise 'T is further considerable what was touch'd on before that the Disciples of Christ besides the common Calamities of Mankind wherein they are involv'd are for his Truth and Cause expos'd to Indignities and Injuries of all kinds and degrees which the malice of Satan and his Instruments the perverted World can fasten upon them The complaint of the Church of old is often renew'd For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as Sheep for the Slaughter And can the Love of Christ so tender so compassionate that the Love of a Mother to a sucking Infant is not an adequate representation of it can such Love let the Saints be separated from him for ever Then according to the Apostle's expression If in this Life only we have hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable 2. His Truth gives an infallible assurance that we shall be receiv'd with him in Glory He declares his own Titles I am the Way the Truth and the Life If Truth it self be true and deserves our intire trust we may rest upon his Promises who values his Word more than the World The Pillars of Heaven shall fall and the Foundations of the Earth be overthrown before one tittle of his Words shall be without a full accomplishment If any Man serves me let him follow me and where I am there shall my Servant be 'T is his most gracious Promise to encourage Obedience and he assures his Disciples If I go away and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also To shew the validity of Christ's Promise let us consider the unchangeable Perfections of God's Nature are the Foundation of his unchangeable Councils and from thence the unchangeableness of his Promises is justly inferr'd The Decrees of God are engraven with the point of a Diamond and are unretractible The Counsel of the Lord shall stand for such is the perfection of his Knowledg that he can never be surpriz'd by any sudden unforeseen Event that should induce a change of his Will and such is his Omnipotence that he gives an infallible accomplishment to his Decrees and his Word endures for ever The immutability of his Nature gives firmness to his Counsels and the fidelity of his Nature to his Promises In him there is no variableness nor shadow of change and he is God that cannot ly He reveals himself by his Name Jehova to his People to signify that he is the same in performing as in promising Now Jesus Christ his Son is equal to the Father in all essential Perfections He stiles himself the Amen the true and faithful Witness If he deceive his Servants with a false expectation of a joyful glorious State hereafter it would be a blemish to his unspotted Holiness an eternal reflection upon his inviolate Truth 'T is therefore a faithful Saying and worthy of all acceptation That where Christ is in Glory there shall his Servants be with him otherwise he would have told them 2. We are to consider the other firm ground of assurance in our Saviour's next words I go to prepare a place for you This specially respects his Ascension into Heaven but it supposes his Death He purchas'd Heaven by his Death He prepares it by his Ascension His Blood shed on the Cross and pleaded in Heaven gives to Believers a right to it here and actual possession hereafter 1. His obedient Sufferings are the price of this glorious Inheritance In our Guilty State Heaven is as inaccessible to us as Paradise was to Adam after his expulsion when guarded by a Cherubim with a flaming Sword For neither the Divine Wisdom nor the Law of God would permit that an unpardon'd Sinner should be receiv'd into his Kingdom The Justice of God doth not infringe his rich Goodness but that he may bestow upon an innocent Creature the most excellent Blessings the Testimonies of his Bounty If Adam had persever'd in his Duty God might have translated him to Heaven and that happy change had been a free Favour for his Obedince had not been comparable to the Glory that shall be revealed in the Saints But Justice sets up a Legal Barr against the Guilty they are excluded from the Heavenly Glory The Creature must be intirely innocent or graciously pardon'd to be capable of enjoying that Supreme Happiness When the guilt of Sin is abolish'd it hath no malignant Power either to subject us to Evil or deprive us of Good Now our Saviour by Satisfying the Injur'd Justice of God hath wash'd away our Sins in his Blood and hath infinitely pleas'd God that we obtain by him not only redemption from Hell but the possession of Heaven This was the Design of God's Love in giving his only begotten Son that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting Life Accordingly the Apostle saith That being justified by his Grace through Jesus Christ we should be made Heirs of Eternal Life And by the gracious unalterable tenour of the Gospel these great Benefits are inseparable it being equally impossible that an unpardon'd Sinner should enter into Heaven or that a pardon'd Sinner should be excluded The Connexion is indissolvable Whom he justifies them he glorifies Nay 't is more easily credible that a pardon'd Sinner should be admitted into the glorious Presence of

A blessed Doctrine In my Father's House are many Mansions capable to receive all his Disciples 2. Gives them an infallible assurance of it 1. From his inviolate Love and Truth If it were not so I would have told you 2. That his going away was not to reign alone in the Kingdom of Glory but to prepare a place for them The Point that I shall discourse of from these words is this There is a blessed Place Above prepared for all the faithful Disciples of Christ wherein they shall be glorified with him for ever In the managing this Argument I will endeavour 1. To represent the Excellencies of this Place specified by his Father's House and the state of Felicity that is inseparable from all that dwell in it 2. Consider the infallible Assurance we have of obtaining it 1. The Excellencies of this Place may be argued from the Maker of it and its Attributes specified in Scripture First God is said to be the artificial Builder of this City to signify a correspondent Excellency in the Work to the Divine Maker All the Works of God have a Divine Impression of his Power and Providence but in some are more conspicuous Characters of his Perfections For the wise Author of all Things hath ordered their several degrees of Excellence both in the Matter and various Art of adorning them suitable to the End for which they were design'd Now the supreme Heaven was made to be the Temple of the Divine Majesty wherein he would diffuse the richest Beams of his Goodness and Glory to his chosen Servants for ever and accordingly is a most noble Work of his Omnipotent Hand and there are two Remarks to be made in its Creation from whence we may infer its peculiar Excellency 1. 'T is the beginning of the Creation Amongst intellectual Beings the Angels are the First-Born of God's Power and in Natural and Divine Prerogatives excel Men. From hence it is that the Excellency of any praise-worthy Quality in Men is set forth by a resemblance of the Angels Excellent Wisdom in David My Lord the King is like an Angel of God Excellent Eloquence by St. Paul is stiled the Tongues of Angels Heroick Vertue and excellent Holiness in the Christian Church The House of David shall be as the Angel of the Lord for that which is highest in any kind of Perfection is the Rule and Measure of the degrees of that Perfection And thus in forming the material World the supreme Heaven hath the precedence in order and dignity before all the other Parts of it Indeed Moses only recites particularly the Creation of the visible World and by what gradations this great Fabrick with all its Furniture was compleated And the History of that is instructive of the Creation of invisible Things which is expresly specified in the Gospel But as Paradise was first made and then Man created to be the Inhabitant of it so we may infer that the highest Heaven the Seat of the Angels was made before they were created Now the Angels we are inform'd by Divine Revelation were present when the Foundations of the Earth were laid and God stretched his Line upon it Then the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy They saw the rising World the variety and beauty of its Frame the admirable Order that distinguishes and unites its Parts that all Things were divinely done and transported with wonder and joy celebrated the praises of the Creator 2. The Supreme Heaven is the effect of God's immediat Creation The Earth with all its Ornaments was form'd of preexistent Matter the Chaos a confused Mass was the Embrio of the sublunary World but the Supreme Heaven is his more immediate and exquisit Workmanship and receiv'd its Being and Perfection at once You may illustrate this by the Account is given by Moses of the Creation of Man God made Man of the Dust of the Ground His Body derives its Birth from the low Element and the Wisdom of the Creator is wonderful in the artificial structure of it 'T is added God breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life and Man became a living Soul The Earth enters into the composition of his Body but his Soul was inspired by the Breath of God that is by his Divine Power immediately created and in nobility of Nature and its spiritual Endowments incomparably excels the Body And the third Heaven though not a spiritual Substance yet in the purity of its Nature far transcends whatever was form'd of gross Matter This being premis'd I will now consider what the Scripture reveals to us of that place that is eminently the House of God 1. The Amplitude of it Our Saviour tells us The Way is narrow and the Gate strait that leads to it to excite our diligence but there are many Mansions in the Celestial Pallace to encourage our Hopes 'T is therefore call'd a City a Kingdom If we look up to the shining Sky wherein are the Sun that by the computation of late Astronomers some thousands of times exceeds the Earth in its magnitude and innumerable Stars and some of that greatness that they eighty times exceed this Globe of Earth tho to the ignorant and therefore incredulous they are judged to be as they appear upon the account of that unmeasurable distance between the Firmament and us but glistering points of Light our Minds will be tir'd and lost in taking measures of that that seemeth boundless and this vast Expansion with all the glorious Luminaries is but the Portal of the House of God Therefore Solomon setting forth the boundless Greatness of God saith Behold the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him that is neither the Airy nor Ethereal Heaven nor the Supreme Heaven that encompasses and exceeds it 'T is a spacious Pallace becoming the Divine Maker's Greatness the Image of his Immensity and the State of Felicity there is answerable The blessed God in whom there is an eternal Union of all Perfections perfections is all in all to his People The Sun in its brightness may be as truly included in a Spark as the Divine Excellencies be measur'd by created Contemplation There is an infinite variety in the Supreme Good that makes it always rare and new in the fruition The universal Love and universal Fulness of the Deity exceedingly satisfies all the Desires and perpetuates the Delights of the Saints He stiles himself in the gracious Covenant with his People I am God Alsufficient walk before me and be perfect He is sufficient in all things that are requisite to the compleat Felicity of the most comprehensive Spirits and is sufficient to make all that innumerable Company of Angels and Saints as happy as one Person God is Light and the Emanations of his Goodness are sensibly represented by it Heaven is call'd the Inheritance of the Saints in Light As the Sun his Almoner diffuses its Light and Heat so generally that every one indifferently enjoys it