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	testimony_n	2,629	5	8.0270	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85825	Antinomianism discovered and confuted: and free-grace as it is held forth in Gods word: as well by the prophets in the Old Testament, as by the apostles and Christ himself in the New, shewed to be other then is by the Antinomian-party in these times maintained. / By Thomas Gataker, B.D. and pastor of Rotherhith.	Gataker, Thomas, 1574-1654.	1652 (1652)	Wing G312; Thomason E671_11; ESTC R207069	45,949	47

he in regard of his paternall displeasure after the committing of them m reconciled unto him until he repented of them and humbled himself for them But his reason 7. n Nothing in us can make God love us les because he loves us not for any thing in our selvs but in and through Christ Yet God doth love us also by his good leav for his own graces in us and our exercises of the same o The Father himself loves you saith our Savior to his Disciples because ye love me and believ that I came out from God 8. p If he should love us more or les as we sin more or les he should be as man And in some things he is as man for q man bears Gods image and r a good man resembles God God is in somethings as a natural father himself saith it s As a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth those that fear him Yea in this particular he is like a discreet parent who tho he love his child deerly as wel when he doth amisse as when he doth well yet is he not so wel pleased with him nor can take that delight in him when he seeth him take some evil course as otherwise he might and should yea therefore is he then angry with him because he loves him and chastiseth him for this end to reclaim him from the same Thus the Antinomians themselves confes that God caried himself toward his in the times of the Old Testament And the like Christ himself professeth of himself in the New Testament t As many saith he as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent To these may be added those other his assertions concerning Faith 1. a Faith is truly and simply this a being perswaded more or les of Christs love And what prophane wretch almost is not prone enough hereunto or may not nourish such a perswasion more or les upon groundles grounds we may wel say of such perswasions as himself elswhere of desires b Who is there that have not a desire All the World of common believers are carried on by this principle of a desire and are they not by the like principle of a perswasion 2. c Men cannot believe too suddenly Yes they may believ too sodainly as did Simon the sorcerer suretoo soon and if too soon then too sodainly presume and be perswaded they may of Christs love if that be faith 3. e None can beleev too hastily on Jesus Christ Tru. but to beleev on Jesus Christ and to have some perswasion more or les of Christs love are divers things 4. f We ought not to stay the exercise of our Faith for repentance or humiliation or any other grace As much as to say beleev we may tho we do not repent directly contrary to g Christs own and h his Apostles method Yea but can we have tru faith then without repentance and without any other grace 5. i None ought to qestion whether they beleev or no Yet the Apostles incite men to try their faith and the sincerity of it both k Paul and l James 6. m In the Gospel all are immediately called to beleev To day if ye wil heare his voice Were they called on so in the Gospel and were they not called on in like manner under the Law I suppose those words were the n Psalmists before they were the o Apostles And are not men called upon in the Gospel to repent immediately as wel as to beleev p Paul was mistaken sure if it were not so and our Saviour himself saith q Repent and beleev 7. r Christ commands to beleev and this is his commandement that we should beleev in the name of his Son Jesus Christ Now commands of this nature must be obeyed not disputed Gods servants do not reason their duty out first with themselves but fall to doing as they are commanded And doth not Christ command s to repent as wel as to beleev yea doth he not t command first to repent and then to beleev for in that order his words run And had this Autor but writ or red out the text he cites he had found somewhat more then faith in it u This is his command that we beleev in his Son Jesus Christ and that we love one another as he gave us commandement But why commands of this nature is not the commandement of repentance and charity and conversion and humiliation of the same nature with that of faith and belief or are there any of Gods Commandements then that because not of this nature may be disputed and not obeyed for some such matter do these terms of restriction import to wit that some of Gods commands are of that nature that they must be obeyed and not disputed others of that nature that they may not be obeyed but disputed No servant indeed of God ought to reason his duty why God should command him to do this or that either with God or with himself but when he doubteth what it is that God enjoyneth him he may x examine and search what the good will of God is that he may not be mistaken in it and so think that he hath done what he should when he hath done nothing les like those that y thought they did God good service when they did that that he utterly abhorred and when they have done what they supposed they should do they may without wrong or disparagement to their Master unles the Apostle were mistaken z try and examine their work whether it were so done as it should be Yea but saith this Autor 8. a We ought no more to question our faith which is our first and foundation graee then we ought to question Christ the foundation of our faith 9. b I find not any in the whole cours of Christs preaching or the disciples when they preached to them to beleev asking the qestion whether they beleeved or no or whether their faith were tru faith or no I find one saying c I beleev Lord help mine unbelief but not Lord whether do I believ or no and d Lord increase my faith but not Lord whether is this tru faith or no It would be a strange qestion to ask the Master of the feast whether his dainties were reall or a delusion would not such a question disparage him for a sorcerer So in the things of the Spirit to be over-jealous of the truth of them as in my tempted poor souls are doth not become the faithfulnes of Jesus Christ Why Faith should be called the first and foundation grace I know not tho e many of our Divines so speake I suppose with f others and without prejudice to any of contrary judgement that as there is the * seed and spawn of all sin together in mans heart from the time of his

naturall birth so there is the seed of all grace sown together in mans soul at the very first instant of his spirituall new birth and that faith is a branch of sanctification as all other graces of the like nature are But to let that pas a man may qestion his faith and yet not qestion Christ for Christ may be Christ tho this or that party have no share in Christ or to use his description of faith be not perswaded more or les that Christ loves him a man tho he qestion not the foundation it self yet he may qestion whether he have built on it or beside it and so whether that be a foundation unto his building or no And I make no qestion but that many that pretend to believ yea that are perswaded they do so and wil not easily be beaten of from that their perswasion and stick not to compare for belief with the best yet had need to have their faith tried and may wel have it qestioned as wel by others as by themselves Yea we find in Scripture examples and instances of such as might wel have qestioned whether they beleeved aright or no and whether the faith they made profession of were tru or no g Simon the sorcerer sure might have done wel to qestion and try the truth of his faith nor might those resembled by h the seed sowen in the rockie ground but wel have done the like by theirs as also those i who tho they are said to believ in Christ yet Christ himself would not trust them and those vain k ones James speakes of that had a fruitles and baren faith Nor were this to aske the master of the feast whether his dainties were meer delusions or to make our blessed Saviour for he I suppose is the feast master he meaneth a sorcerer but to enqire whether we our selves have not been deluded when in some night vision such as the enthusiasts of our times too much hanker after we have with l Lucians sowter dreamed of a great feast and of such his dainties and of communion with him in them when as all hath been nothing but m a nightly delusion They did not qestion the truth of God that sought for wisdome whereby to discern between Gods messages brought by his Prophets and those n dreamers dotages who yet pretended to be sent by God as wel as the best and would not stick to demand of Gods Prophets o when the Spirit of God went from themselves to speak unto them Nor did the Apostle Paul when he called upon the Corinthians to p try their faith nor the Apostle John when he called on the faithful to q try the Spirits whether they were of God or no thereby incite them to qestion Christ the foundation of faith or to qestion Gods Spirit the worker of it but to be wise and wary in discerning between truth and falshood between sound and unsound between faith wel grounded and deceitful fancies and groundles presumptions between teachers delivering the doctrine of life and grace according to the word and such as warping from that rule yet pretended to have the Spirit Tru it is indeed that mans weaknes in the apprehension of the work of Gods Spirit in him may make the truly godly without ground or good cause sometime to qestion the truth of it in them but there is no ground or just cause for any thence to infer that no man ought to qestion whether he believe or no or whether his faith be tru or no every one otherwise should be bound to presume that he doth beleev and that his faith is tru faith For not to infist on that which we lately touched on that when the Apostle called upon some to try their faith he presumed that some such faith there was as would not go for currant but would proov r unsound when it came to the touch or the test and when he useth more then once that discriminating term of s faith not counterfeit or unfained he implies therein that there may be counterfeits and there are indeed not a few as of Christianity so of faith Not to insist hereon I say this Autor himself acknowledgeth that t there may be a kind of faith as in them that believed in the parable and in time of temptation fell away and yet not in the power of Christ nor in the life of the Spirit and that v such faith tho a ded faith may go far in resemblance carying the image of something like the new man and whether think we then is such faith to be questioned or no or wil this Autor say that for those that have such a faith to call their own faith in qestion is to qestion Christ himself But indeed according to this Autors ground there is no need for any man to qestion what manner of faith his faith is since that without any such ado whatsoever his faith be he may have interest in Christ For saith he 10. x For the way of comming by a right or purchasing an interest in this righteousnes or salvation wrought by Christ it is held forth without price or works onely for taking and receiving and believing on all being wrought to our hands so as this is as good a ground for one to belief on as another without exception y the covenant being such as was established with Noah Gen. 9. 11. nothing reqired on mans part and z this being a Scripture way he would upon these principles leav a soul Where to set aside his terms of purchase and price as if ought in that kind were by any of us attributed to faith or repentance or any work of ours and yet herein he contradicteth himself when he telleth us one while that salvation is held out a freely by the Prophet Esay in that phrase without price and yet an another while that b all the ministery of the Prophets did run in this strain as if Gods love were to be had in way of purchase by duty and doing Nor to resume again what hath been formerly said of believing and receiving another manner of matter then this man makes of them And that the like may be charged on him to that he chargeth upon the Legalists to wit c propounding to men the promises of the Gospel with such conditions of repentance d and sorrow for sin c. which because they are things that they e can not do f in steed of drawing a soul unto Christ put it further of from him for may it not as wel be objected to him as it is by him to them that he professeth indeed to make an offer of free grace and free promises but he propounds them so clogged with conditions of receiving and taking believing on that these being such as men are not able to do of themselves g they dare not meddle with them until they be prepared by

Antinomianism Discovered and Confuted AND FREE-GRACE As it is held forth in Gods Word As well by the Prophets in the OLD TESTAMENT as by the Apostles and Christ himself in the NEW shewed to be other then is by the Antinomian-Party in these times maintained By THOMAS GATAKER B. D. and Pastor of Rotherhith LONDON Printed by T. R. and E. M. and are to be sold by J. B. at the Guilded Acorn in Pauls Church-yard near the little North-door 1652. To the Christian Reader DUring the time of my restraint and confinement to my chamber which I am not yet wholy freed from by a late sicknesse that brought me very low and some relapses that kept me down being by a friend that came to visit and assist me advertised that there was a Treatise abroad of one Mr. John Saltmarsh a man to me then save by one or two short Pamphlets utterly unknown wherein I was among other late writers produced traduced I might say as giving some Testimony to the Tenents of the Antinomian party I could not but desire greatly to see it wondring not a little as a Phocion sometime what should slip from my tongue or pen that to that party should be pleasing Having therefore to satisfie my selfe therein procured a sight of the book and finding therein the matter reported answerable to the report that had been made to me of it I was the rather thereby induced to looke into the work albeit the very b specious glorious and deep promising Title it selfe which yet sometime is wont to moove matter of c suspition that the Frontispice at first presented me with as affording upon an experiment of many yeers a cleerer discovery of Jesus Christ and the Gospel sundry soul-secrets opened and the Gospel in its glory liberty freenes and simplicity for salvation further reveiled might have been d a bush sufficient of it self to invite to such pretious pretended liquor and to such choise abstruse and usefull matter I tooke some time therefore to read it thorough and having upon a serious and advised survey of it observed that not only the godly Ministry both of these and former times and as well the Divines themselves as their Divinity was therein grievously traduced but the doctrine of the Gospel also miserably corrupted I could not forbear notwithstanding my present weaknesse yet to strain a little and to hazzard the incurring of some inconvenience partly for the cleering of my self from compliance with those whose opinions both in Pulpit and by Pres I have publikely protested against and partly to unbowel and lay open some part of that unsound stuff that lies closely couched in this covert vault leaving the further prosecution and discovery of it to some other skilful Anatomists of more strength and of better abilities for such a businesse then myself To this purpose I had inserted the present discours a good part of it by way of digression into a worke of another nature that then hung in mine hands but having dispatched that and finding it to have risen to a far greater bulk then at first I intended or expected in regard whereof it was not sodainly like to see light I thought good again to extract thence what concerned this subject and having somewhat further enlarged it to let it go by it self that it might the sooner come abroad If by it any may be stayed that are but wavering or winding yet that way or any strengthened and warded against the wiles of such as would withdraw them thereunto for of those that are fixed on it I conceive little hope I shall have cause to blesse God for it and to think my paines therein wel bestowed However my prayer shal be to the e Father of lights that he will be pleased in mercy to f enlighten the minds of his faithfull people amongst us with that Spirit of wisdom and of light whereby they may be enabled to g discern between sound and seeming between tru and fals lights lest mistaking their way while they are misled by the latter like those h that fondly follow some blazing meteores they fall upon perilous and pernicious precipices to the ruine of their souls and while they think to make a shorter cut of it as imagining to have found out an easier and more compendious passage to heaven declining those paths because to flesh and blood they seem the more harsh and unpleasing that Gods Ministers out of his word have formerly chalked out unto them insteed of attaining what thereby they expected they run hedlong on toward hell IT is no good prognostik when men to maintain a cause that they have undertaken to defend shall either for the gaining or for the faining of a party wrest and writhe other mens words to wring that out of them that neither they speak nor those that uttered them ever intended in them In which kind I find the speeches of many worthy men some deceased some yet surviving by one Mr. John Saltmarsh in a worke of his lately come abroad much abused being strangely strayned to make men believe that they held forth in their writings some glimerings at least of those new counterfeit lights which those deceased ones were they surviving to see would together with such of them as are yet surviving in all likelihood not disclaim onely but even abominate But they are gone tho their works yet remain out of which matter enough might soon be collected to shew how many miles the Antinomians of these times and they are asunder As for those of them that yet live they may if they so please and deem it a work worth their labour take a little paines to cleer the passages produced out of their writings where they find them misapplied Sufficient it shall be for me to vindicate mine own from that which out of them this Autor would extract Among the rest therefore of those a approved Writers with whom some Truths of Free grace are related by him to be found Sparkling in Testimony to what is in that his Discourse in part asserted and in these times by others Assertors of Free grace those of the Antinomian party he meaneth as he b elswhere expresseth himselfe I find my self and some words of mine produced which I shall endeavour here to cleer The Point that he propounds from my writings to be proved is thus layd down by him c That we and those commonly called Antinomians differ little Concerning which Proposition so delivered by him as speaking in his own person albeit I could not then when I wrote speak any thing at all to it as having at that time seen nothing of his yet now I see nothing but that I may very freely subscribe it For I find very little difference between many of his Assertions and theirs and they may very well therefore go together Neither do I conceiv that he intended any whit lesse where he makes d the Truths here asserted by