Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	faith_n	fundamental_a	1,746	5	10.1277	5	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

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

relish those things that are above do thou endeavour to quit all Phantasms and imaginary Representations of Bodily Things because nothing is more pleasing and acceptable to God than a Mind divested of all such like Forms and Images for his Delights are with the Sons of Men that is such who with a Calm Mind Purified and Simplified from all these Occupations Distractions and Passions do intend apply and cleave to him making this their whole business For otherwise if thy Memory Imagination and Thoughts be often busied about these things it must needs be inveigled either with some new things or the remains of some formerly entertained or be variously affected and distracted with other occurring Objects Wisd 1.5 For the holy Spirit of Discipline as the Wise Man saith removes its self from thoughts that are without Understanding Wherefore a true Lover of Jesus Christ must be so united in his Intellect through good Will to the Divine Will and Goodness and be so naked and stript of all Phantasms and Passions as not so much as to take notice whether he be derided and flouted at or Loved and Honoured or whether any thing else happen to him For a good Will makes up all and is above and beyond all Wherefore if there be a good Will and that the same in the Intellect be purely conform and united to God it can do no hurt tho' the Flesh or Sensuality and the outward Man should incline to Sin and be backward and dead to that which is good yea even though the inward Man also should be dead and listless to any thing of Devotion for in this case it is sufficient for a Man by Faith and good Will nakedly to cleave to God in the Intellect or Supreme part of the Soul And this he will do if he throughly perceive and be sensible of his own imperfection and nothingness and know that all his good consists and is in his Creator and if with all his Powers and Faculties he abandon himself and all Creatures and totally plunge his whole self into his Creator so as to direct all his Actions purely and entirely to his Lord God as the sole end and scope of them all seeking nor desiring any thing besides him in whom he perceives himself to have found all Good with all Happiness and Perfection And by this process he becomes in a manner transformed into God to that degree that he can neither think nor understand nor love nor remember any thing but God and the things of God nor doth he see himself and other Creatures save only in God Neither doth he love any thing save God alone nor remember or make mention of them or of himself but in God Now this knowledge of the Truth makes a Soul very humble judging it self but not another whereas on the contrary the Worldly Wisdom makes the Soul proud Vain Arrogant and pufft up with Wind. Let us lay down this therefore for a Spiritual and Fundamental Doctrine that he who would draw near to the Knowledge Service and Familiarity or Communion with God and that would really possess him must of necessity wholly strip and divest his Heart from all sensible Love not only of every Person whatsoever but of every Creature to the end that with a simple and entire Heart he may reach forward and press into the Lord God his Creator freely without all Duplicity Care or Sollicitousness with a full assured Trust and Confidence in his Providence as to all his Concerns CHAP. VII How the Heart is to be gathered up or recollected into it self MOREOVER as it is said in the Book of the Spirit and Soul Chapter 21. To mount up to God i● to enter into ones self For he who inwardly entring and intimately penetrating into himself gets above or beyond himself he truly mounts up to God Let us therefore gather up our Hearts from the various Distractions o● this World and recall them to the joy● within that we may at last be able to fix them in the light of Divine Contemplation For this is the true Life and Rest of our Heart when by Desire it is fix'd in the Love of God and sweetly refresh'd with his Divine Comfort But the reason why in the experimental taste and relish hereof we are manifoldly hindered so as that we can by no means reach to him is plainly this because the Mind of Man being distracted with solicitousness doth not enter into it self by the Memory being overshadowed clouded with Phantasms doth not retire into her self through the Intellect being allur'd by Lusts and Concupiscence doth not turn in to her self through the desire of internal sweetness and Spiritual joys and being thus wholly taken up with these sensible and present Things she can never enter in to her self viz the Image of God in her self It behoveth therefore above all things and is necessary that with humble Reverence and great Confidence the Mind raise it self above it self and every Creature by a total denying and renouncing of them all and say within her self he whom of all things before all things and above all things I seek love long for and desire is neither sensible nor imaginable but above every thing that is sensible and intelligible too He is not to be perceived by any sence but wholly desirable by full and perfect desire neither is he figurable or representable but to be most perfectly long'd for by the most intimate affection He is not to be rated or valued but wholly to be affected with a pure heart as being above all things amiable and delectable and of infinite Goodness and Perfection And thus she is carried into the darkness of the Mind and becomes higher raised within her self and enters deeper into her self And this manner of ascending to the Aenigmatical or obscure Vision of the most Holy Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity in Jesu Christ is by so much the more fervent by how much the power of Elevation is more intimate to the mind and so much the more fruitful and profitable by how much it is nearer and stronger in Affection For in Spiritual Things those are accounted higher which are more inward as to Spiritual Experience Wherefore do thou never leave never rest until thou get a taste of some Pledges or foretastes of the fulness that is to come and 'till thou perceive the sweetness of the Divine Loveliness by some little first Fruits and do not cease running after her in the perfume of her good Ointments unti thou come to see the God of Gods in Sion For in thy Spiritual Progress and in this Union with and cleaving to God within thy self thou must neither desist nor give back until thou hast obtained what thou lookest for whereof we may take an Example from those who are going up an high Hill For if in this ascent our Spirit through Lust and Desire comes to plunge it self into the Transitory Things here below it immediately is led out of the way

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