Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	answer_v	know_v	word_n	2,215	5	4.1186	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30929	Natural theology, or, The knowledge of God from the works of creation accommodated and improved, to the service of Christianity / by Matthew Barker ...	Barker, Matthew, 1619-1698.	1674 (1674)	Wing B777; ESTC R20207	99,798	210

of Man yet God knows them better then the Spirit of Man yea he knows the Spirit it self and that better then it knows it self Let then Christians walk continually under an awful sence of this And take heed of all sin because it is all known especially that of Hypocrisie an Hypocrite pleaseth himself that he is not known to Men But let him consider that he is known to his own Conscience and that condemns him And he is known better to God then to his own Conscience and therefore God will condemn much more as knowing all things 1 Joh. 3. 20. And suppose a Man should be unknown to himself as we know the Heart of Man is deceitful not only to the deceiving of others but even of it self yet nothing in the Heart is hid to God So that when the question is put The heart is deceitful above all things who can know it It is answered I the Lord search the heart c. Jer. 17. 9 10. It should ingage every Christian to search and know his own Heart because it is searched and known of God That he that knows the Heart may find uprightness and truth in the inward parts which he is said to Love II. Consolation A true Christian may comfort himself in God's knowledge of him 1. That God knows the weakness of our Nature carries comfort in it to his people As 103. Psalm 14. He knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are dust He knows he made us at first out of the dust and he remembers it still and as he makes it to himself an Argument of pity as the Psalmist speaks in the 13. verse so we may thence also frame an Argument to our own comfort in the daily feeling we have of it 2. That he also knows the Heart is no small comfort to the upright in Heart And that 1. In respect of the obloquies censures and misjudgings of Men. 2. In respect of the failings and defects that attend our Services God can look through them all to that integrity that is in the Heart which is known to him Hezekiah was guilty of many failings but he had this to comfort him that his Heart was upright with God and that God knew this for he prays God to remember it 38. Isa 3. 3. In respect of Inability to perform what good we desire God doth not only know what we act but that desire of the Heart out of which we act and where the Desire is beyond the Act as it is in all true Saints God knows that desire to accept it though the Act falls short of it David was under such a deep sence of God's goodness to him that he knew not how sufficiently to express his thankfulness but he comforts himself in this that God knew him 2 Sam. 7. And what can David say more unto thee for thou knowest thy servant Infer II. If God be the Creator of Man it followes that Man is not his own God hath a supreme right to him as his Maker He hath made us and his we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as those words may be read Psal 100. 3. He hath made us and not we our selves And this Original Right of God cannot be alienated either by any extrinsick Power or by any Compact made by our selves Though Men sell themselves to work wickedness as Ahab did yet they cannot sell away God's right to them as their Creator As he that is the true proprietor will claim his goods where he sinds them though sold over and over by such as had no right And therefore for Men to be their own and live to themselves hath a manifold Evil wrapt up in it 1. It is Ingratitude If it be Ingratitude not to improve and devote the additional Comforts of our Being to God much more not to devote our Being it self Being it self is the greatest favour we receive from him and therefore it is the greatest unthankfulness not to give him the Praise of it by living to him If any of us should raise a Man into some good condition in the World and then should not be acknowledged by him that is thus raised we should justly brand him with Ingratitude Much more Ingratitude is it not to acknowledge God that hath raised us out of Non-being into Being When Paul desired a favour of Philemon with respect to Onesimus he presseth it by this Argument that he could tell him that he owed himself unto him Philem. 19. It would have been great ingratitude had Philemon denyed his request though he did not owe himself to the Apostle in that Supreme and absolute Right as we owe our selves to God And he that made us reasonable Creatures could have made us Brutes ought we not then to be thankful to our Creator for making us such and no Man is truly thankful that is his own and reserveth himself from him Man's service of God may be accounted reasonable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cultus rationalis Beza as making him a reasonable Creature and not a Brute Rom. 12. 1. 2. It is Injustice He that is his own and lives to himself detaineth from God that which is His and that is Injustice And as the Heathen Poet speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. all Vertue is comprehended in Justice so injustice runs through the Nature of all sin and all sin is radically comprehended in this In Mans being his own The unprofitable servant in the Parable was Condemned for not improving his Masters Talent to his use and the unjust Steward was cast out of his Office for imbezeling his Masters goods And there was injustice found in them both For Man not to improve the Talent of his Being to the use of his Creator is unjust much more to imbezel and waste it upon the service of his Lusts For what are all the faculties of our Souls and Bodies but our Masters Goods and to be devoted to his use Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 9. He mentions afterwards several sorts of sinner s but in this they all agree they are all unrighteous 3. It is folly should a Man live to himself when he cannot make himself happy Happiness is that which all desire why should then Man make himself his End when he cannot be his own happiness was Man self sufficient he need not go out of himself but be his own Principle Rule and End But seeing he is not sufficient to his own happiness it is folly for him to live to himself If Man in his fullest state of perfection was not his own happiness how much less can he be now in his Indigent empty state When Man changeth his ultimate end from himself to God he now returns to the true Wisdom and is delivered from that folly that sin had possest him with For Men imagine they can make themselves happy else they would not

Elijah Is it not because there is no God in Israel that thou sendest to ènquire of Baal-zebub 2 King 1. Yes there was a God of Israel but he was as if he was not unto Ahaziah Men cannot nullifie God's Being in it self but they may nullifie it to themselves As the Heathen Idols they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothings as the Apostle saith of them 1 Cor. 8. 4. yet when Men Worships them trusted in them and gave Divine Honour to them they made them Godds So on the other-hand they not honouring acknowledging reverencing and trusting in the true God do make him as nothing For it is only those that glorifie him as God that do truly own and believe his Being Yea those Duties that are more properly Evangelical and not so expresly contained in the Law of Nature yet the belief we gather to our selves of the Being of God from the Creation of the World may much influence us that live under the Gospel to the performance of and so Natural Divinity may be made subservient to Christianiry whereof I shall give account in the next Chapter CHAP. V. Evangelical Duties are promoted by a true belief of God's Being How the Light of Nature may further the belief of the Scriptures and Faith in Christ and Repentance Whence Repentance first springs what is it to take up Christ's Cross How helped therein from the belief of God's Being What influence the Light of Nature hath upon Obedience to Gospel-Institutions Inference from the whole 1. IT is an Evangelical Duty to believe the Scriptures To receive them as a Divine and certain Rule of Faith and Obedience Now we may fetch some help from the Light of Nature herein Though I deny not but the Scripture is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hath such Characters within it self as may perswade the belief of it and the Testimony of the Spirit in a Man's Conscience is the surest bottom of Divine Faith yet some additional strength may be borrowed from the Light of Nature For that Light that declares to Man There is a God that made the World declares also a Providence that he governs the World If he governs the World he governs it in Wisdom Etenim si Deus est utique providens est ut Deus Nec aliter potest ei Divinitas attribui c. Lact. de ira Dei Cap. 9. if in Wisdom then every Creature is governed according to the respective Principles of their several Natures And therefore Man must be govern'd as a rational Creature And he cannot be so governed but by a Law and that Law enforced by Rewards on one hand and Punishments on the other Now either this Law thus enforced is found in the Scriptures or no where There is no Book can pretend to stand in competition with the Scripture exstant in the World fot the Turkish Alchoran that is but of late years and Man hath been under God's Government from the beginning And most know by what Impostures it obtained any credit and the several Absurdities contained in it and what a sensual happiness it proposeth to them that receive it How it hath been from the beginning enforced upon people by the Sword And never confirmed by those many undoubted Miracles which the Truths of the Scriptures have been But I need not enlarge on this Subject There having been so many Learned Pens already engaged herein especially that Hononred Knight whose worthy Book concerning the Reasonableness of receiving the Scriptures for the Word of God doth justly add new Honour to Himself and a great Confirmation to the Truth 2. The Gospel calls upon Men to come to Christ and to believe in him as the Saviour of the World Now the powerful Sence of a Deity upon the Heart will Excite and Influence Men thereunto And the want of this I look upon as one great Reason why Christ is preached so much in vain When Conscience is awakened then the Innate Notion of a Deity that was before as it were asleep begins to awake And then Men begin to fear and the Sence of Sin and Judgment to come makes them enquire after a way of Reconciliation and so Men are brought to Christ as the way according to the notice they have of him in the Gospel So that as he that cometh to God must first believe that God is as we read Heb. 11. So he that cometh to Christ must be brought to him by an operative Belief of the Being of God When Paul came to Athens to preach Christ to them he first instructed them concerning the true God Act. 17. whom he declares to them to be the Maker of the World ver 24. God that made the World and all things therein c. Here begins true Christianity Men are Christians but in Name till they come to Christ by true Faith and they come not to him till the Practical Belief of God's Being doth excite them to it As the dark Notions the Heathen had concerning God did lead them to offer Sacrifice to him when they feared he was offended So much more will the clearer knowledg of his Being and the fear of his Wrath send those that live under the Gospel to Jesus Christ the true Sacrifice and Propitiation So that whiles I have been demonstrating a Deity from the Works of Creation I hope I have collaterally been serving the great Design of the Gospel of bringing home sinners to Jesus Christ As a Learned Man speaks to this purpose Dr. Jackson Vol. 1. p. 874. The ingrafted Notion is the Matter or Subject out of which God's Spirit raiseth the entire and right frame of Faith as it did the frame and fashion of this visible World out of that Mass which was first without Form though created by him 3. So Repentance is hereby promoted also When men are throughly convinced that God is they then begin to bethink themselves of their wayes how they have carried it towards him how observant they have been of his Law how they have answered his end in their Creation And hence now Repentance doth take its first rise What saith the Sinner if there be a God as I now clearly find there is wo is me that I have thus sinned against him and have taken no more notice of him Alas I have lived without him in the World I have been concerning my self about the Creatures and have little thought of God my Creator and had as little belief of his Being Alas what shall I do How shall I possibly escape I cannot flee from him for he is God I will now judge and condemn my self I will mourn bitterly I will lament my Folly and Ignorance I will go to him and say Lord I have sinned against Heaven and before thee I am thy Creature and the Work of thine Hands yet have rebelled against thee As Balaam went on confidently tlll his eyes were opened and he saw the Angel with the drawn Sword but then saith the Text He bowed down his