Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	act_n	believe_v	faith_n	3,882	5	5.9558	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91366	The way step by step to sound and saving conversion, with a clear discovery of the two states, viz: nature, & grace: and how to know in which state one is, and the way to come out of the one into the other. Or, The ready and right path-way for the first Adams posterity to get out of their fallen estate accompanied with sin and misery, into the relation and family of the last Adam, which estate is attended with grace and glory, &c. With many weighty questions answered, and cases of conscience resolved, for the clearing and confirming the truths asserted. / By Robert Purnell.	Purnell, Robert, d. 1666.	1659 (1659)	Wing P4241; Thomason E1800_1; ESTC R209703	66,581	144

and heart doth in some measure exercise these four things 1. It doth look unto him 2. It doth come unto him 3. It doth receive him 4. It doth believe in him and lay hold on him 1. It doth look unto him Isa 45. 22. Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else Zach. 12. 10. And they shall look upon me whom they have peirced and mourn for him as one mourneth for his only sonne The soul looks upon an humbled Christ with an humble heart upon a broken Christ with a broken heart upon a bleeding Christ with a bleeding heart upon a wounded Christ with a wounded heart in a word this is such a look as sends a man away with another heart Psal 34. 5. They looked unto him and were lightened there is no change of the substance of the soul and body nor of the faculties of the soul and body but the qualities of the faculties are clearly changed so that men and women become as children in humility teachableness and beginning the world a new he hath a new heart and a new tongue new inclinations new intentions new desires new content and discontent new delight new anger new courage new fear new hope new thoughts in his heart and new work to do and yet as before there is no change of the substance of soul and body nor of the faculties of the soul but the qualities of the faculties are clearly changed c. 2. The soul doth not only look unto him but it doth come unto him Mat. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest John 6. 37. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Some affirm that in the Greek this word hath three negatives thus I will in no wise no wise no wise cast out and if so Let the Reader consider these three things 1. The Lord doth call thee three times in one verse Isa 55. 1. come come come So in Rev. 22. 17. And the Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth come and let him that is athirst come 2. As there are three calls Come come come so there are three sorts of persons invited to come and all couched in the latter words of the 17th verse of Rev. 22. And whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely 1. What person soever he be Jew or Gentil Barbarian or Scythian Acts 10. 34. 35. Then Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousnesse is accepted of him 2. What finner soever he be he despiseth not the weeping Mary the begging Canaanite the intreating Publican the confessing Thief the adultero●s Woman the denying Disciple the persecuting Paul Isa 1. 18. though your sinnes be as scarlet they shall be cleansed c. 3. What time soever a sinner doth come so it be before the sun is set the glasse out and the golden scepter taken in if it be at the eleventh houre or as the Thief upon the Cross at the last gasp it may be thou mayst obtain mercy 4. Lastly he doth assure those that come he will in no wise in no wise in no wise cast of Now lay all these together the Lord calls Come come come the persons that he calls are of three sorts 1 what person soever 2 what sinner soever 3 what time soever he come if he indeed come to me I will in no wise in no wise in no wise cast off 3. So there is not only a looking upon him and a coming to him but there is a receiving of him John 1. 12. but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God by the habit of faith the soul doth passively receive Christ but by the act of faith the soul doth actively receive Christ In the first the soule is passive but in the second he is active there is a twofold receiving of Christ a passive and an active passive wherein the spirituall principle of grace is ingenerated or infused into the heart or soul and so we are received of Christ before we do receive Christ so that Christ in working the grace of faith receiveth us and by the act of faith we receive him so that Christ taketh the soul before the soul taketh him Now he that hath thus received the Son hath life 1 John 5. 12. he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Collo 2. 6. As ye have therefore received Christ the Lord so walk ye in him He that truely receiveth Christ receiveth him in all his offices as a King Priest and Prophet this receiving of him is not an act of the understanding but an act of the will imbracing him and trusting on him 4. The heart doth believe in him and the soul layes hold on him so that forementioned place John 1. 12. they and they only becomes the Sons of God that doth believe in his name when the Jaylor Acts. 16 30. would know what he must do to be saved the apostles answered him and said Vers. 31. believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved so when the people asked Christ what they should do that they might work the works of God John 6. 28. Jesus answered and said unto them Vers. 29. this is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent So 1 John 3. 23. This is his commandment that we should believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know saith the apostle whom I have believed there is the first act of faith of reliance and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have commited to his trust there is the second act of trust When the soul is brought over to assent unto that great truth that Christ is a Saviour and a Mediator it doth rowl and rest it self upon him and so trusteth on Christ for justification and consequently for salvation Psal 37. 5. Commit thy way to the Lord trust also in him Prov. 16. 3. Rowl thy works upon the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established Cast thy burthen upon the Lord Psal 28. 7. The Lord is my strength and my shield my heart trusteth in him The Lord is the Author and Finisher of our faith he doth command us to believe he doth enable us to believe and then commends us for believing so the Lord commends Nathaniel for his faith which was only the faith of his own powerful working so he commends David for his uprightnesse Hezekiah for his perfectness Moses for his meekness Cornelius for his devotion the Publican for his compunction the poor Widdow for her liberality and the woman of Canaan for her faith and importunity all which was only the work of his own grace in them

of Gods own will James 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth Faith is also the free gift of God Philip. 1. 29. Justification is freely by grace Rom. 3. 24. Forgiveness of sinnes is according to the riches of his grace Eph 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his bloud the forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of his grace Eternal life also is the gift of God Rom. 6. 23. Qu If these and the like precious things be only of grace without works then in what respect are good works necessary An. Good works are necessary 1. in respect of God 2. in respect of our selves 3. in respect of others 1. Works are good in respect of God 1. to shew our obedience 2. to glorifie his name 3. to testifie our thankfulness 4. to beautifie his gospel 1. To shew our obedience Rom. 6. 16. To whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness See John 8. 34. compared with 2 Pet. 2. 19. 2. To glorifie his name Mat. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven 1 Pet. 2. 12. Having your conversation honest among the gentils that when as they speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of visitation See Thess 1. 12. 3. To testifie our thankfulness when we consider that we our selves together with the residue of mankind lay equally in the guilt and pollution of Adams sin he freely gave unto us so excellent a being after his own Image leaving our fellow sinners unto misery from all eternity he appointed his son to descend as low as hell to fetch us from thence and to ascend up as high as heaven to carry us up thither this is the great and glorious cause of thanksgiving saying in these or the like words Psal 116. 12. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me Whatsoever we are we are by him whatsoever we have we have received from him whatsoever we are or have we owe to him Rom. 11. 36. Of him and through him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen 4. Good works are necessary to beautifie the Gospel Philip. 1. 27. Let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ And in the 2 Col. 9. 13. there were a people commended fortheir professed sibjection to the gospel surely unless we maintain and keep up good works in our conversation we walk unworthy of God Col. 1 10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruit failin every good work c. Nay farther if we are negligent in obeying we walk unworthy of our calling Eph. 4. 1. I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called Tit. 2. 10. that we might adorn the doctrin of God out Saviour in all things for indeed an holy conversation is the end of our election Eph. 1 4. compared with John 15. 16. Again it is the end of our redemption 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. compared with 2 Cor. 5. 15. Nay farther it is the end of our vocation 1 Pet. 1. 15. compared with 1 Thess 4. 7. Lastly a holy conversation is the end of our new creation Eph. 2. 10. We are created in christ Jesus unto good works which God hath ordained before that we should walk in them So much for the first of these Good works are necessary in respect of God to shew our obedience to glorifie his name to testifie our thankfulness and to beautifie his gospel c. 2. Good works are necessary in respect of our selves 1. As it is the way of conveyance of mercy to us 2. To declare and manifest our sincerity 3. This is the way to have a being and a well-being 4. This is the way to make our calling and election sure 1. They are necessary in respect of our selves as they are the pipes of conveyance of both the apprehension and application of mercy to us See these Scriptures Psal 50. 23. To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God Psal 107. 43. Who so is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. John 14 21. He that hath my commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him 2 Cor. 1. 12. For this is our rejoycing that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation among you 2. They are necessary to clear and manifest our sincerity both to ourselves and others to our selves as they spring from a right principle and are regulated by a pure rule and done to a good end 1 Tim. 1. 5. compared with 1 Cor. 10. 31 to others they know a t●ee by its fruits they know where faith is by its works and where love is by its effects 1 John 1. 6. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth so 2 Cor. 8. 7. 8. 3. They are necessary as to our being and well being Psal 37. 3. Trust in the Lord and do good so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed Mat. 16. 27. He will reward every man according to his works 4. This is the way to make our calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 5. 6 7 8 9 10 11. For if ye do these things ye shall never fall for so an entrance shall be administred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 3. Good works are necessary in respect of others Titus 3. 8. they that have believed in Christ must be carefull to doe good works for these things are good and profitable to men in these four-sold respects 1. To stop the mouths of wicked men 2. To increase the joy of the Lords people 3. To win others to the embracing of the Gospel 4. For an example of vertue 1. To stop the mouthes of wicked men who will condemn sin in a Professor although they will approve of it in themselves 1 Pet. 217. For so is the will of God that with well-doing we may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men this made wicked Saul say to David 1 Sam. 24. 17. Thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good for evil 2. To increase the joy of the Lords people Col. 2. 5. for though I am absent in the flesh yet am I with you in the spirit joying and beholding your order and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ So again the second Epistle of John vers 4. I rejoyced greatly saith John that I found of thy children walking in truth Surely

Unbelief is the greatest sin in the world because it is a sin against the greatest love Iohn 3. 16. compared with Rom. 5. 8. it is a sin against the only remedy the sentence of the Law may be repealed by the Gospel but the sin against Gospel remedy there is no repeal of it is a sin that makes void and vain all the covenant of grace turning all the sweetnesse thereof into bitternesse and all the truth of it into a lye 1 John 5. 10. Therefore God is more severe against Unbelief than any sinne because Unbelief is most severeto God God hath no greater Enemi●s in the world than Unbelievers 7. Let us consider that a man without Faith is like a naked man in a storm or like an una●med man in a Battel like a ship unanchored and unballanced in a storm he is like a Sea without Banks a world without a Sun or a ship without a Pilot he is under the command of all his passions and enemies c. Qu. In what way are we to conceive of God when we pray to him Answ We are not to conceive of him under any shape or resemblance Deut. 4. 12 15. we are not to think that the Godhead can be resembled to any thing Acts 17. 27 29. compared together for unless we should equal God to any thing how can he be likened to it Isay 40. 18. 25. Who can by searching find out the Almighty to perfection Iob 11. 7 8 12. We are to conceive of him as one not to be fully conceived by us and so pray to him with such apprehensions of him yet we are to believe that he is and that he is a rewa●der of those that seek him Heb. 11. 6. namely that he to whom we pray is such a God which seeth and knoweth all the secrets of our hearts and all our thoughts that he is present with us where-ever we are comprehendeth us though we cannot comprehend him he is most holy most wise most mighty who is ready to do for us above what we are able to ask or think Ephe. 3 18 19 20. This is to conceive of him in the glorious and precious dimensions of his love so shall we comprehend with all Saints the heighth and breadth length and depth and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge in this sence may we see him that is invisible Heb. 11. 27. For the true God is invisible as appears by these Scriptures Coll. 1. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 17. Tim. 6 16. The divine essence is not visible to bodily eyes in this life the essence simply considered cannot be seen by the Soul in this Life Exod. 33. 20. In the life to come though it be seen apprehensively so far as the spirits of just men made perfect are capable yet not comprehensively and fully Job 1. 1. 7 8 9 10. Q. How or in what order are we to direct our prayers to the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity namely to Father Son and Holy Ghost A. In our Prayers we ought not to fix our ey● or minds so upon one in the Trinity as not thereby to be led to the other the Father being in the Son and the Son in the Father and the holy Ghost in them both Iohn 14. 10. we cannot look at one but we must eye the other they that look on Christ as their Mediator must see and eye the Father as giving of him so to be yea and at the holy Ghost as one with the Father sent and consented to his designment to that office as the Lord Christ himself sayeth Isay 48. 16. and now the Lord God and his spirit hath sent me c. we cannot look aright to the Father but we must look to him through the Son neither can we look upon the Son but by the Spirit It is true that in order we are first to direct our Prayers to God the Father yet not as first or chief in honour above the other two for even the Son who albeit as man and as Mediator he be inferiour to the Father Iohn 14. 28. yet as God as the Son of God he is equal with him Iohn 5. 18. Phill. 2. 6. and the Son is to be honored as equal with the same honor as the father Iohn 5 23. Albeit as was said the holy Ghost be not excluded but included so are we to pray unto God through Christ by the help of the holy Ghost Iohn 16. 23. we are to ask the Father in the name of the Son by the help and assistance of the holy Ghost Rom. 8. 26. Again we are baptized in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost and therefore we are to pray unto and worship Father Son and holy Ghost we are to believe in the Father Son and holy Ghost and therefore we are to pray to the Father Son and holy Ghost so that in all external worship of God one in the Trinity being named the other are understood and are not to be excluded Q. How can there be three and yet but one God Answ God is one in essence one Jehovah one God and no more and therefore God calleth himself I am Exod. 3. 14. all besides himself are but created results of God bits of dependances upon him all Nations are before him as a drop of a Bucket as the small dust of the Ballance as a very little thing as nothing as lesse than nothing as vanity Isay 40. 15 17. This one God in essence saith Mr. Thomas Cobbert in his Treatise of Prayer pag. 542 to which I assent viz. is in personal properties three subsistences really distinct yet we are not so to let our thoughts feed themselves in musing upon the blessed persons as distinct in personal properties but with an apprehension of thē as one in essence one Jehovah one God and no more the property of begetting is applyed to God the Father and not to the Son or the holy Ghost he to whom the Scripture giveth the property of the only begotten Son of God he is Jehovah God the Son and no other and so he to whom the Scripture applyeth the property of proceeding he and only he is God the holy Ghost the Scripture applying to none other that property of proceeding or being as it were breathed forth from the Father therfore is called his Spirit Nū 8. 11. from the Son therfore is called the Sons Spirit Gal. 49. yet the holy Scriptures never mention but one Jehovah even when it mentions him in personal distinction three yet essentially but one 1 John 5. 7. There be three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one the Dvine essence subsisting in three relative properties Father Son and holy Ghost The personal property of the Father is to beget Ps 2. 7. The personal property of the Son is to be begotten John 1. 14 18. The personal property of the holy Ghost is to proceed from the Father and the Son John 14. 26. 15. 26. What shall Isay more As God for the helping of us to understand his essence is pleased to take unto himself certain names and attributes by the help of which we may the better understand his essence so also is he pleased to take unto himself certain names appellations to help us to the better understanding of his subsistance c. yet there is but only one living true God who is infinite in being perfection a most pure Spirit invisibly without body parts or passions immutable eternal incomprehensible working all things according to the counsel of his own will he is the alone Fountain of all beings of whom through whom and to whom are all things in his sight all things are made manifest his knowledge is infinite infallible and independent he is most holy in all his Counsels in all his Works in all his Commands c. But if any demand farther How can there be three and yet but one God I answer great is the mystery the Son in the Father and the Father in the Son and the Spirit of truth which is by the Father and the Son John 14. 11. John 15. 26. 14. 26. So that in this mystery a Christian is to believe what reason cannot comprehend the Father sent forth his Son the Son sent forth the holy Ghost yet Father Son and holy Ghost was never separated one from another Take a candle burning and there is substance light and heat and yet not three candles but one candle Look upon the good man of a House and you shall find that he is a Husband to his Wife a Father to his Children a Master to his Servants and yet not three men but one man so in the unity of the God head there be three of one substance power and eternity God the Father God the Son and God the holy Ghost the Father is of none neither begotten nor proceeding the Son is eternally begotten of the Father the holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son c. FINIS