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	preach_v	1,670	5	6.9046	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67085	The key of saving knovvledge, opening out of the holy Scriptures, the right way, and straight passage to eternall life, or, A dialogue wherein the chiefe principles of the Christian religion are unfolded for the enabling of Christian people, to understand the Word of God ... composed by Geo. Walker ...	Walker, George, 1581?-1651.	1641 (1641)	Wing W360; ESTC R39413	43,048	124

beleeving applying of Christs righteousnes to themselves is the justifying act of Faith And whereas the historicall saith of Devils and carnall men is only an assent unto the Word of God that it is true arising from carnal reason and arguments convincing the judgement without any affection to the truth or any relying on it On the contrary every act of beleeving any word or promise of God if it proceeds from a true Faith in the elect is not a naked assent ruled by humane and naturall reason but guided by Gods Spirit and joyned with a relying on God and his Word upon the Divine authority of the speaker and may be brought as an evidence of their salvation may in that respect be called a saving beliefe as we see at large Heb. 11. where beleeving that the worlds were framed by the Word of God And that God would bring a flood upon the world and destroy all except them that were in the Arke made by his appointment and that he would give the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham the Israelites and after 400 yeares deliver them out of Aegypt and such like acts of beleeving proceeding from an holy spirituall Faith are declared to bee saving Faith Quest How doth actuall beleeving set a work all other graces and increase them more and more in the Elect regenerate and justified Answ. By the sense feeling and sweet fruition of Christ and his righteousnesse satisfaction and intercession it brings us to the sight and experimentall knowledge of the goodnesse bounty love and mercy of God to us in Christ And being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and hereby the holy Ghost sheddeth the love of God abroad in our hearts so that being inflamed with the love of God wee begin more and more to hate and abhorre our owne vile corruptions and sins which are offensive to his holy Majesty We are ashamed and confounded because we have by our sins so often provoked so gracious a God and mercifull Father wee grieve and mourne and sorrow with godly sorrow to repentance wee strive and wrastle against our lusts and by the assistance of the Spirit tame and subdue them so that sinne can no more reigne in our mortall bodies we contend to sollow hard after God to cleave to him in love and to bee still more more united to Christ in love and zealous affection of heart And in holinesse and newnesse of life we study and strive to be conformable to his image and in a word we are stirred up to use all care and endeavour that wee may abound in all good works and still forgetting those things which are behind may reach forth unto those things which are before and presse hard towards the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus In all which workes of saving grace as God moves us by his Spirit so we being moved enabled and made a free people do cooperate and work together with him till we come to the measure of the age of the fulnesse of Christ and be fitted to see God in glory Quest What outward meanes are to bee used whereby the Spirit of God may worke in the Elect and beget and increase Faith and beliefe with all other saving graces in them Answ. The chiefe outward meanes is the Word of God without which God doth not ordinarily shed his Spirit on them beget them again and by his Spirit work saving grace and the works of grace in them For they are borne again of incorruptible seed that is of the Spirit by the Word of God 1 Pet. 1. 23. and regeneration which is Gods shedding of the holy Ghost on them through Christ and the first saving worke even the ground worke of all other saving graces is not to be found where the Word is not Preached By the Word of Christ the holy Gospell only the Spirit speaks inwardly to mens hearts and leads them into all truth John 16. 13. By the Word preached hee begets Faith for Faith commeth by hearing and none can beleeve except heheare Rom. 10. 14 17. The Word is the whole and perfect rule of Faith and whatsoever the elect beleeve to salvation is conteined in the Word and there only to be learned John 3. 39. The threatenings of the Law are the meanes by which the Spirit discovers to beleevers the danger of sin and their own misery humbles them in their own eies and drives them out of themselves to Christ by repentance The precepts of the Law prescribe to them the right way in which they ought to walk and is a lamp to their feet and light to their steps Psa. 119 105. The Word of the Gospell is the Covenant of life and sets before them the goodnesse bounty love and mercy of God in Christ and by it the Spirit inflames them with the love of God with joy and delight in God and with zeale for his glory and stirres them up to imitate God in works of mercy love and charity and in all holinesse and sanctification till they be conformed to Christ and to serve honour and worship God And in a word the whole Scripture which is the sure infallible Word of God given by Divine inspiration is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction and for instruction in righteousnes that the man of God may bee perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3. 16. 17. Quest How must the Word of God bee used that it may be such an effectuall meanes of the Spirit to worke all these gracious effects in Gods elect people Answ. It must not only be read out of the Sacred Scriptures in which it is recorded by the Prophets and Apostles but also preached and expounded by godly able and learned Ministers who are called and sent of God Rom. 10. 15. For they are Gods watchmen who have a charge given to watch for mens soules Ezek. 3. 17. Heb. 13. 17. They are his Shepheards and Overseers to feed his flock with his Word the Bread of Life Act. 20. 28. Ezek. 34. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Ephes. 4. 11. And by delivering Gods message faithfuly they obteine this honour to themselves to bee called the Angels of the Lord Mal. 2. 7. and Gods Ambassadours 2 Cor. 5. 20. and to be spirituall Fathers under God who beget children to God in Christ by the Gospell 1 Cor. 4. 15. Quest What other meanes are to be used Answ None but such as God hath prescribed in his holy Word to wit the Sacraments which are seales annexed to the Word publike Prayers Invocation and Worship of God And also good education and private Prayers and instruction and often reading of Gods Word alone and in private Families Quest What is a Sacrament Answ. It is a religious action prescribed by God in which by using outward visible rites consecrated to be signes seales pledges and

the sure spirituall band of union betweene Christ the head and them the members of the same mysticall body Quest What is Adoption Answ. It is a necessary consequent of the union of the Elect with Christ For Christ being the only begotten Son of God by eternall generation as hee is God and as hee is Man by personall union with God the Sonne and by a supernaturall and miraculous generation and so heire of all things Heb. 1. 2. It must necessarily follow that whosoever are in him one body with him and lead by his Spirit do thereby come under the account of children and heires of God and of coheires with Christ and so God the Father doth esteeme respect and accoumpt them the Spirit dwelling in them doth witnesse with their spirit that they are the children of God Rom. 8. 16. Quest What is the Communion with Christ of all his benefits Answ. It is a consequent that is a grace necessarily following from union with Christ For whosoever are by one Spirit baptized into Christ and made one spirituall body with him as really and substantially as all members in a mans body are one naturall body with the head they must needs have such a spirituall communion of all Christs treasures vertues and endowents as is the naturall communion which all the members in a mans body have with the head Christs sufferings satisfaction for sin righteousnesse ransome and intercession are theirs and they have a right and interest in them and communion of them all And thus God justifies and makes them fundamentally righteous by Christs perfect righteousnesse frees them from the guilt of all their sins by his satisfactory sufferings and accepts them for his redeemed and reconciled ones through Christs intercession and makes them actually accepted in his beloved Christ Eph. 1. 6. Quest What are the works of saving grace which God so worketh in the Elect that they also being moved by his Spirit do cooperat and worke together with him Answ. They are the actions of the Elect regenerat exercising by the motion of the Spirit those spirituall gifts and Christian vertues which were given them by renovation or renuing of the holy Ghost Quest Which is the first of them Answ The first is actuall Faith or Beleeving in God and in Christ for as the gift of Faith is the first of all spirituall gifts which by the renuing of the holy Ghost is wrought in the elect regenerate So the worke of their Faith that is actuall beleeving is the first of all which by the motion of the Spirit they performe after they are quickned and raised up to live a spirituall life Quest Why is the work of their Faith the first before the acts of knowledge repentance love hope and the rest Answ. Because Faith possesseth the whole heart and soule of man and informeth after a sort all the powers and faculties thereof even the understanding will and affections It is the opening of the understanding to take notice of Gods goodnesse and of the truth of his Word It is the inclining of the will to give assent to the whole Word of God and all truth therein revealed and to acknowledge all Gods Truth Goodnesse and Mercy in Christ It is the rectifying of the affections and the plyablenesse of them to trust in God to rely on him to hope in his mercy to love feare and reverence him and to hate all offence of his holy Majesty to sorrow for sin with godly sorrow to repentance to rejoyce and delight in the things of God and to bee zealous of good works and resolve to serve honour and obey God in a constant course of life This saving Faith sets a work all other graces and therefore all works of true godlinesse holinesse and righteousnesse performed by the Elect regenerate and sanctified are called fruits of Faith by which their Faith is openly shewed and made knowne as a tree by the fruits of it Quest Which is the proper work of true saving Faith Answ The proper work of it by which all other graces are set a work is a firme and stedfast beleeving with the whole heart of the Word of God and all things therein revealed which concerne their salvation by Christ that is both eternall life in the fruition of God and the way to it Quest What difference is there betweene this beleeving and that which is in Devils and in carnall hypocrites who beleeve these things or at least many of them at some times Answ. There is as great difference between them as between light and darknesse The beleeving of the Elect regenerat proceeds from a supernaturall cause and from a Divine and holyroot even the Spirit of God dwelling in them as Gods immortall seed and sanctifying them and therefore it is holy firme and stedfast and reacheth beyond all hope sense and reason But that of the Devils and carnall hypocrites proceeds from their own naturall reason convinced by sense experience and plaine arguments or by a common illumination of the Spirit shining from without into the hearts of hypocrites and temporary beleevers as we read of Simon Magus Act. 8. 13. and the hypocriticall Iews who beleeved in Christs name when they saw his miracles John 2. 23. And therefore their beleeving is carnall temporary and vanishing and goeth no further than sense and naturall reason do lead The beleeving of the Elect is the subsisting of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. That is they have the things which they beleeve as certainly as they beleeve that they have them and hope for them and their beleeving is a cleare evidence to them of their being in Christ and of their communion with him in grace and of their portion in Heaven which things are not seene with carnall eyes of sense or reason For the Spirit which works this beleefe hath united them to Christ and made Christ and all his benefits theirs already so that their beleeving is infallible and cannot deceive them But Devils carnall men and hypocrites cannot reach so far as to beleeve their own particular salvation in Christ or their having of things thereto belonging And if any of them do at any time Mich. 3. 11. it is but a false and vanishing beliefe In a word whosoever doth by a true saving Faith beleeve historically the Word of God and the truth therein conteined he hath withall an affiance in God and grace to beleeve by all other acts of Faith even to apply to himselfe all Gods promise by beleeving steadfastly that they belong to himself in particular For as the Spirit wch works this faith is the fountain of all grace and unites the beleevers to Christ makes him all his benefits theirs So this Faith necessarily produceth all acts of beleeving in them and makes them able by beleeving to apply to themselvs to enjoy all blessings which are to be found in Christ Quest What benefits do the Elect receive by

THE KEY OF SAVING KNOWLEDGE Opening out of the holy Scriptures the right way and straight passage to Eternall life OR A Dialogue wherein the chiefe principles of Christian Religion are unfolded for the enabling of Christian people to understand the Word of God and to atteine to the true sense and mean●ng thereof Composed by GEO. WALKER B. of Div. and Pastor of S Iohn the Evangelists Church in LONDON LONDON Printed by THO. BADGER M.DC.XLI To his little flock the Inhabitants of the Parish of S. Iohn the Evangelist in Watlingstreet in London Georg● Walker their weake but wellwishing ●astor commendeth this small token of his unfeined love and hearty desire of their eternall happinesse in the fruition of God by their fellowship and communion with him in the Lord Iesus Christ BEloved in the Lord Christ seeing now I have spent one halfe of my dayes in Preaching to you and your predecessors the Gospell of Christ in expounding the sacred Scriptures in watching and labouring for the good of your soules to wit for the space of 29 yeares untill there is not one left alive of all those inhabitants who were masters of families at my first coming to this place and did all with one consent and voyce make choyce of me to be their Pastor I hold it high time for me to thinke of my departure from hence by putting off this earthly tabernacle and of leaving you as your predecessors who were my first flocke have left me their Pastor behind them to feed you a succeeding generation And least my labour and paines which I spent among them for the good of their soules should seeme to die with them and to bee buried in their graves I have thought good to renew the memory of them and to leave to the World some Monuments of that Doctrin I have Preached to them heretofore as also to you of latter times by Gods gracious assistance though in great weaknesse of body yet with a willing mind and with a courage never daunted with any menacings and threatenings of potent adversaries and malicious persecutors The principall heads and true platforme of which doctrine I have briefly comprised and compendiously set forth in this short Dialogue which containes in it the principles and foundations of Christian Religion and which I do here commend to you as a testimony of that unfeigned love which I beare to you and of my fervent desire of the salvation of your soules I have already published and have ready for the Presse divers larger Treatises wherein are conteined many particular doctrines which may be reduced to these principall heads and are there largely handled plainly opened and fully proved by Scriptures and the true use of them shewed in such manner as they have beene by my mouth publikly preached among you But this golden Key which is the quintessence of them all will open Heaven unto you if you can learn to use it aright It is made of divine metall even the Word of God revealed from Heaven which is more pure than the most refined gold It will teach you by a short and compendious way to know God not only in the unity of Essence in his essentiall attributes In the Trinity of persons and in his Works of Creation and actuall Providence overruling mans fall and disposing it and all the evils which entered in by it to his own glory and the good of his Elect but also in Iesus Christ in whom to know him the only true God is eternall life as our Saviour testifieth Iohn 12. 3. Here Gods eternall Counsell and Decree of Predestination is discovered Here you may learn the saving works of God in and by Christ God and man humbled in our nature What love God hath shewed in giving his Son for us and what Christ hath done and suffered for our Redemption Here you may see what saving works God works by his Spirit shed on his Elect through Christ as Regeneration Renovation effectuall calling Vnion with Christ Adoption Communion of his ransome for Redemption of his Righteousnesse for Iustification of his satisfaction for Remission of sins and Reconciliation And what Gods Spirit works in us and by us as Mortification Sanctification Faith Repentance and all holy graces and how and by what meanes he enables us to apply Christ and his benefits unto us and to enioy him and them for Salvation and also doth beget and increase grace in his Elect to wit by the Word preached and heard the Sacraments rightly administred and received faithfull and fervent Prayer and the like And how these worke in the Elect to eternall life and blessednesse and are abused by wicked reprobates to their owne everlasting damnation and destruction These things have I written to you Fathers and Masters that you may read them your selves and commend them to your children and families I commend them to you Young men that you may grow strong and may overcome the wicked one And I commend them to you litle children that you may learne to know his name and that your sins may be forgiven you for his names sake If after so much preaching teaching you be found ignorant unprofitable it is because the God of this World hath blinded your minds least the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto you This word will be to you the savour of death unto death and this booke shall witnesse for me against you that you are wilfully ignorant and a lost people But if as I hope and pray fervently and wish from my heart You do chearefully receive the love of this Truth then shall my Doctrine bee to you the savour of life unto life and wee shall both together I of my worke and labour in preaching and you of your reverence in hearing and faithfulnesse in obeying the Word Preached receive the reward of righteousnesse which Christ hath purchased for them that beleeve and obey the Gospell even the Crown of glorie which never fadeth This briefe summe of Christian Religion with other more large Treatises I have written in my bonds for the common benefit of you and others to testifie unto you that the many waters of troubles and persecutions which I suffer for the Truth sake which I have preached unto you cannot quench my love to you nor my desire of your salvation nor hinder mee from labouring for your good In all which I seeke not yours but you And as I have preached the Gospell freelie to you never seeking any of your temporall goods for my ministring of spirituall things plentifullie unto you but spending besides my spirits much substance over and above the revenues of my smal Benefice which from you I have received so I commend to you freely this and all other works and labours of my love which if you do lovinglie accept and use and imploy to your own advantage I shall thinke my work in some good measure rewarded and shall ever remaine a faithfull

the holy one of God and so was God and man in one person Quest How could hee bee borne a pure holy man without sinne of a woman a daughter of Evah and of the same nature with the rest of man-kind who are all corrupted in Adam Answ. God Almighty who alone is able to bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane did by his power over-shadow the Virgin his mother and the holy Ghost came upon her and framed out of her seed and substance an holy seed and so hee was conceived and borne without sinne perfectly holy both in soule and body and filled with the holy Ghost Quest How could he being so perfectly holy be subject to infirmities and to death and other punishments due to sin Answ Though he knew no sin yet he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. and being most holy and righteous in himselfe he tooke all our sins upon him and bare all our sorrows and infirmities that he might thereby satisfie Gods infinit justice pay our ransome and redeeme and reconcile us unto God Isa. 53. 4 6. Quest How and by what meanes hath Christ redeemed us from wrath and wrought our salvation Answ. By executing and performing the office of a Mediator between God and men Quest How is he a Mediator Answ. As he is God the Son equall with the Father so he is a person of infinite value and worthy to be accepted and able to make a full satisfaction for all sin to Gods Iustice and to pay a ransome of infinit value And as hee is man of the same nature and substance with all man-kind and the first fruits of the whole lumpe so hee is fit to make satisfaction in the same nature which sinned and is our brother and friend and one who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and is compassionate towards us and deales faithfully for us As he is God so he is too high to be a Mediator for man and as he is man so hee is too low to mediate and plead to God for us sinners But as he is God and man in one person so he is most fit to come as a Mediatour betweene God and men Quest Wherein doth Christs Mediation consist Answ. In the faithful execution of a threefold office The first of a Prophet The second of a Priest The third of a King Quest How did he execute the office of a Prophet Answ. By Prophecying Preaching and Revealing the Will of God from the beginning both in his own person and also by his Prophets Apostles and Ministers of the Word and Gospell In the old world he went forth in the Spirit and soake to the godly Fathers Enoch Methushelah Noah and others and by them preached to the wicked especially while the Arke was a preparing as the Apostle testifieth 1 Pet. 3. 19. He in the forme of man and sometimes of an Angell spake to Abraham Isaac and Jacob Gen. 18. 26. 32 24. Hee was the Angell of the Covenant which appeared to Moses in the bush and said I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob Exod. 3. Hee spake also at sundry times and in divers manners as apparitions dreames and visions to the Fathers in times past and by his Spirit inspiring and moving the Prophets Heb. 1. 1. And in the dayes of his flesh he preached the Gospell with his own mouth And as after his Ascension he sent down the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles and gave them the gifts of Tongues and of Knowledge to Prophecy and Preach the Gospell to all Nations Act. 2. So he is with them in their true successors the Ministers of the Gospell to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. And by his Spirit gives them knowledge and utterance to teach and expound the Scriptures and to bring men to the saving knowledge of the truth And in a word he is the great Prophet whom God promised to raise up to his people like unto Moses whom all ought to heare and obey in all things Deut. 18. 15. And no other Prophets or Preachers are to be heard but those which Preach in his Name truly according to his Word conteined in the holy Scriptures Quest Wherein doth the office of his Priesthood consist Answ. In making attonement betweene God and men both by offering up himselfe and all sufficient Sacrifice for all our sins in his obedience unto death and in suffering all punishments due to sin and by bringing in eternall righteousnes which is his perfect fulfilling of the Law in the obedience of his whole life Dan. 9. 24. Rom. 8. 3 4. 1 Cor. 5. 21. For in these two consists the whole work of mans redemption and the full ransome and sacrifice of attonement which is needfull to reconcile men unto God Quest How can the sufferings of one man satisfie for all men and the righteousnesse of one be able to justifie all that are to bee justified Answ. The man Christ as hee fulfilled the Law and suffered in our nature so his righteousnesse and satisfaction is humane and is proper only to mankind for as man sinned so man satisfied But as this man Christ is also God in the same person So his righteousnes and satisfaction is Divine of infinite value and worth even the righteousnesse and suffering of God and that is more than if all men had suffered eternall death and fulfilled in their own persons every jot and title of the Law and all the righteousnesse thereof Quest If Christs infinite Godhead doth adde so much to his obedience performed in our Nature and makes his sufferings of infinite worth and value What need was there of shedding his bloud unto death and of suffering all the stormes of Gods wrath was not as some say one drop of his bloud sufficient to redeeme the world Answ. Though Christ is a person of infinite value because he is God yet as he could not be a compleat and perfect Mediator if hee had taken into his person the body only of a man and not a complete Manhood consisting both of soule and body So suffering in part and obeying the Law in part could not bee made a complete satisfaction for justice requires a full suffering of all kinds of punishment due to man for sin even of death it selfe and a perfect fulfilling of the whole Law otherwise there is no righteousnesse If one drop of Christs bloud shed for sin had beene a sufficient price of redemption than it had been injustice in God to exact more and undiscreet and vaine prodigality in Christ to poure out all his bloud and his soule to death when one drop was enough Quest Is this all that Christ doth as a Priest Answ. This is all that Christ did in paying mans ransome and price of attonement but to make men partakers of it and of the benefit thereof he doth make intercession to God for them as appeares Rom. 8. 34. and Heb. 7. 25. Quest How doth