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	word_n	14,132	5	4.8692	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89645	A little starre, giving some light into the counsels and purposes of God revealed in the Scriptures. Or A catechisme, wherein these ensuing principles. 1. What God is, and how he manifests himselfe. 2 Why he made the world and man. 3. Mans condition, what, 1. by creation. 2. By his fall. 3. By being restored by Jesus Christ. 4 The uses and ends of the law. 5. What the Gospell is. 6. Justification what it is. 7. Sanctification what, and how it is wrought. 8. What repentance is. 9. The use and ends of the Scriptures. 10. What true prayer is. 11. Baptisme, and the Lords Supper, why, and how used. 12. Generall redemption what, and how to be adjudged of. 13. Resurrection and judgement what. 14. Heaven and Hell what, in truth and misterie. All which are briefly by way of question and answer opened and explained. / By VVilliam Mason.	Mason, William, Anabaptist.	1653 (1653)	Wing M948; Thomason E1505_1; ESTC R208669	86,553	204

prophecies and types which made mention of him and therefore they were enabled extraordinarily to declare both in word and writing the whole will and counsell of God and the word so spoken and written being a revelation of Christ through the Spirit was written and spoken for our instruction Christ now reveales himself to us also by the same Spirit and to the same ends and purposes but not in the same manner nor in the same degree Christ by revelation enabled them to speak and write a mystery and by revelation he enables us to know and understand that mystery which was spoken and written by them They were inspired by the Spirit immediately to write and speak the mind of God perfectly To us it is given to understand and believe the will of God in the mystery of Christ by attending upon reading exhortation and doctrine even by the same Spirit The Apostles were sent to preach the Gospel and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word preached Paul was an Apostle a teacher of the Gentiles and unto him was this grace given that he should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ c. The Gospel must be preached but every preaching is not the preaching of the Gospel for some men preach neither Law nor Gospel but their own fancies others preach justification by the duties of the Law knowing neither what they say nor whereof they affirm and others jumble Law and Gospel together saying that men must believe in Jesus Christ and yet they must walk in a strict performance of the duties of the Law or else they cannot be saved But the Gospel where it is purely preached is not with wisdome of words to exercise or set forth mens humane arts and acquired abilities but in the evidence and power of the Spirit to perswade men to believe the preaching of the Gospel is not to chide or revile men for not believing but to beseech men to be reconciled to God The preaching of the Gospel is not to threaten wrath and vengeance against sin and sinners but to offer termes of peace reconciliation and salvation through Christ Jesus to the worst of sinners Moreover the Lord hath in much wisdome and goodnesse manifested his will in a written word for he very well knew what was in man many Prophets of old did run before they were sent but because they spake not according to the Law and the Testimony their written word their was no light in them There were also false Apostles in the Primitive Churches but because they spake not according to the word of faith revealed in the true Apostles they were soon discovered to the Saints The Mystery of iniquity in that man of sin came into the world after the working of Satan with signes and lying wonders and men were deluded by them because they did not receive or believe the truth as it was revealed in the written word but Christ hath already in part and is daily destroying more and more that mystery and kingdome of the devill by his appearing and the brightnesse of his coming according to this written word And there be many also that boast and brag of visions and revelations and despise and deride the Scriptures but because they resist or put away the truth therefore they shall not be able to proceed much further for their folly shall be made manifest to all men by the power of truth revealed in the Scriptures Neither is the Scripture contrary to it self or any the least contradiction in it for as no part of it was written by the private motion of mans own Spirit so neither is it of any private interpretation nor to be drawn or stretcht to any mans private purpose for we are not to use the Scriptures for our own self ends or so much of them as will serve our turnes but to weigh and consider the whole Scripture and labour to reconcile seeming differences for though there may appear some small seeming jarrs in the letter yet being compared with other Scriptures and weighed with a Spirit of love and meeknesse there will be found a sweet harmony in the sence and meaning and where any thing is hard and difficult and not easie to be understood there we are not rashly to determine but by prayer and supplication to wait upon God who is a revealer of secrets and to whom interpretations doe belong and in due time we shall reap if we faint not Q. What is Prayer A. Prayer is much spoken of and much used among men but it is not very well understood for many people can and doe utter words and sentences which the Saints in Scripture have used in prayer and yet they doe not pray prayer is not every lifting up of the voice to God nor every lifting up of the heart to God for the most wicked man may pray and that earnestly and that for life and salvation and yet not pray aright yea a believer and one that is in Christ may be very fervent in prayer and yet not being rightly catechized and instructed in the nature of true prayer may not be accepted but offend in praying Prayer is not a work of wit or memory or of any other common gift of the Spirit but true and right prayer as it goes up to God through Christ so it comes down first from God by Christ and is indeed the intercession of Christ in the soul for no man knowes how or what to pray for as he ought yea the Saints themselves are compassed with many infirmities and many of them lie under many outward crosses c. by reason whereof they may and doe now and then use prayer in a carnal manner now it is the Spirit which removeth or helpeth against these infirmities when the Spirit prevailes as it doth for the most part in the Saints then it assures them of the love of God and overcomes all feares and doubts and carries them up to God with free accesse making them to know that God is not delighted with eloquent words and speeches or sentences finely framed and artificially drawn into a method But that he is well pleased with Christ and delights in nothing but Christ and if he be in the soul though at present they cannot utter many words or outward expressions nay if they can but groan in spirit he knowes the meaning thereof for he knowes the heart and understands the mind of the spirit If prayer proceed from a mans own spirit then it is alwayes for self ends but if it be the intercession of Christ in the soul then it is alwayes agreeable to the will of God for he even Christ maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Q. If prayer be the intercession of Christ in the soul then how is it said that he is at the right hand of God and maketh intercession

believe not in him and are not thus united and made one with him in the Spirit though they eat his flesh and drink his bloud namely in the carnall and outward use of Bread and Wine yet they have no life in them neither shall they enjoy any true comfort in him nor eternall life by him but shall goe into condemnation Q. But is it not said in the Scriptures that Christ died for all men and that as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men to justification of life How say you then that some go into condemnation A. Christs death did in some respect reach forth it self unto all men God had a glorious design in making of man and for this end did bring forth this outward creation of all things to be subservient to his glory to help forward this design yea and the Lord was rich in mercy and store and abundantly provided aforehand to keep this design on foot for Christ was that Lamb prepared and slain before the foundation of the world Now if Christ had not died in the purpose and account of God before man had actually sinned then there had been an utter subversion and dissolution not onely of mankind but also of the whole Creation by mans sin But now the death of Christ coming between divine wrath and the whole creation did still give a being unto the same that it should be serviceable in helping forward this glorious design And upon this account meerly it is namely by the death of Christ that all men even the most wicked enjoy a temporall life health riches yea all outward things whatsoever for in this sence he is said to save or preserve man and beast for he doth good to all and makes his Sun to shine and his Rain to fall upon the just and unjust namely the Sun and Rain of his outward providence and thus Christ died for all men and so he is the Saviour of all men But there is a more especial salvation as the Apostle saith He is the Saviour of all men but especially of them that believe and this salvation is not that outward or temporal salvation but an inward and spiritual one and is peculiar onely to them that believe in him and are made one with him and upon this ground it is that the Apostle saith as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men to justification as if he had said that as Adam by sinning brought all men into a state of sin and so of condemnation so all that are justified unto life are made just by the free gift and grace of God by faith in the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ so that the words doe not extend that as all men fell in Adam so all without exception should be justified and saved by Christ but onely they who by faith lay hold on the righteousnesse of Christ the which the Apostle declares at large in the 3 4 5 6 7. Chapters In the 3. Chapter he proves all men to be under sin and that by the workes of the Law no man can be justified and that God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation that whosoever believes should be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in his bloud In the 4. Chapter he tells them that even Abraham was not justified by or for any work which he wrought but onely by faith in Christ Jesus and that faith was reckoned unto him for righteousnesse and so it shall be to all that doe believe In the 5. Chapter he tells them that justification by faith brings peace and joy into the soul which justification by the work of the Law could not doe because the work was ever doing but never done and they looked upon God in that estate as ever angry But now sayes he we have peace with him and can joy in tribulations for though in Adam we were under condemnation yet now believing in Jesus and looking to him for righteousnesse we are justified unto life Thus the Apostle is farre from intending a general redemption but an especiall salvation by faith in Jesus Christ peculiar onely to them that believe Q. But the Apostle writing to Timothy exhorts that prayer be made for all men because he will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth and further saith that Christ is the Mediator between God and man who gave himself a ransome for all And the Apostle John saith That Christ is the propitiation for the sinnes of the whole world How say you then that salvation is peculiar onely to them who doe believe A. For the clearing of this the meaning of these Scriptures must be inquired into The Apostle indeed exhorts that prayers intercessions and giving of thankes be made for all men for Kings and all in authority and gives a twofold reason First in respect of themselves that so they might live in quietnesse and godlinesse under them The second reason respects God it is his will he is well pleased with our praying for them because he will bring some of all sorts high and low to the knowledge of the truth that so they may be saved And if he say what must we pray for the Gentiles for our Governours are no Jewes is it lawfull to pray for them Yea saith the Apostle God will have all to be saved Gentiles as well as the Jewes for there is but one God and he is the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jewes and there is but one Mediator between God and man even the man Christ Jesus who gave himself to ransome the Gentiles as well as the Jewes and this mystery was not known to former ages but now in due time it is to be manifested and for this very purpose saith he I am ordeined a Preacher and an Apostle to bring this good tydings to the Gentiles and to assure their hearts that if they believe in Christ they shall be saved and thereof you need not doubt for as Christ who is truth is in me so that which I speak is truth And hereto agrees that of the Apopostle Peter in Acts 10. 34. That God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation Gentiles as well as Jewes he that feareth him and worketh righteousnesse is accepted of him shewing plainly that the purpose of God in bringing in the Gentiles was a secret to that day but now was revealed And where the Apostle John saith That Christ is the propitiation for the sinnes of the whole world he doth not mean every particular person in the world but onely they who walk in the light as God is in the light even these the bloud of Christ doth

in their severall conditions both in their creation and in their fall Now God thus beholding mans severall conditions at one and the same instant for there is neither first nor last with God did purpose in his eternal counsel to make man an upright creature And did also at the same instant fore-know and fore-see that men by sin would undoe themselves And was pleased also in the very same instant and according to this fore-knowledge out of the abundant riches of his love in Jesus Christ to choose out some poor miserable fallen wretches and to make known to them the exceeding and super-abundant treasures of his grace and favour in him in their severall generations and so to unite them to himself in Christ that they should be to the praise of his glorious grace And also to let others alone in their sinnes by leaving them to their own hearts lust unbelief hardnesse and impenitency delighting themselves in sin and all ungodlinesse and becoming one with Satan and willingly obeying his commands he might then declare himself infinitely glorious in justice in rendering to every man according to his work And in this respect it is said Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus For he hath mercy namely in restoring men to grace and favour in Jesus Christ on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth or leaves them in their sinnes Thus God did not elect and afterward reject neither doth he love and afterward hate for whosoever God loves indeed with an especial love a love to eternal life he loves them in Christ and he loves none in Christ but whom he hath elected and chosen in him and those whom he thus elects he cannot hate for he loves them in Christ and as Christ God indeed loves all his creatures as they be his creatures and in this respect hates none of them for he hates nothing but that which is contrary to his holinesse which is sin but when the creature is corrupted by sin and is become one with the devill in sin then it is just with God to hate the creature as he hates the devill and sin and to punish them together Neither did God make man to damne him but he made man yea all men for his own glory Now if men wilfully disobey God and willingly dishonour him by living in actuall rebellion against him all their dayes and so bring upon themselves destruction and damnation Is God unrighteous that taketh vengeance God forbid God will have his honour from all men yea the most wicked and ungodly wretches that live in following greedily their own base lusts doe many times help forward Gods designes and justly perish in so doing But the Saints even those whom he hath elected and manifested himself unto in Jesus Christ as they glorifie him in their lives for his glory shines forth in their conversations so he doth glorifie them here with great glory and will eternally glorifie them with himself as the resurrection of the just Q. What mean you by resurrection if you mean a resurrection of the body What resurrection can be of that which is nothing and comes to nothing earth it is and to earth it must return and there is no difference between them and beasts as one dies so dies the other all goe to one place and there is no more resurrection of the one than of the other but the resurrection is Christ and Christ is the resurrection God hath given him all things and he will raise up all the good things which are himself into himself to a more full and glorious discovery of it self in him in one body for every man is a grave to himself wherein lies dead and buried all his comforts life and joyes but when Christ calls from above by his power and rises from below even in our hearts then are we raisedup with him and in him and so make up a glorious union in one person so that the great and generall resurrection and judgement is nothing else but the raising and heightening of all things in man to a perfect state of light and darknesse pleasure and pain For what other resurrection or judgement can there be But a bringing again of all good things in man to a full discovery of glory and the casting away of all evill things into a discovery of darknesse or a heightening of both good and evill to a full end and period of life and death salvation and damnation A. That there is a resurrection even of the body is plain in Scripture although Salomon in that place makes such a comparison between men and beasts yet he intends it between beasts and men in a natural estate For what great advantage have meer natural and carnal men above a beast The one eates and drinks and sports So doth the other The one dies and sees corruption so doth the other The one knowes not what shall be after him so neither doth the other And what if carnal men be rulers and so in the place of Judgement where they ought to do Righteousnesse Then they turne oppressors and do much wickednesse I said in my heart saith he Oh that God would manifest himself to them and make them see that they be but beasts in the likenesse of men c. Here is no great strength in all this against the resurrection of the body For the bodies of wicked men shall be raised as well as their souls to give an account for things done in them 2 Cor. 5. 10. And our Saviour saith all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth They that have done good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evill to the resurrection of damnation And that he intends here a resurrection of the body is plain For he had spoken of a spiritual resurrection in the 25. Verse where he saith the hour is comming and now is that the dead shall hear his voyce and they that hear shall live Meaning the dead in sinne whom he would quicken by his power to newnesse of life For although the Saints dye and depart out of this life yet they doe not perish as to their bodies for they are but fallen asleep and they sleep in Christ and this is in respect of their bodies for their soules or spirits cannot be said to sleep And Christ will raise them up at the last day The Apostle met with some among the Corinthians that denied the resurrection of the body 1 Cor. 15. with whom he seemes thus to reason The resurrection of Christ hath been preached among you and you cannot but believe it because it was not onely foretold by Scripture but was witnessed also by many who had seen him after he was risen Now if this be a truth how then say

and abhominable and murderers and sorcerers and Idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death Yet those words can have no relation to mens persons for if they have what will then become of all men for what man is there which hath not one or other of these sins in him but great is the mistery of godlinesse God manifest in the flesh the truth manifest in a form so here is a mistery wrapt up in these words for this evill is not threatned against the persons of any no not of the most wicked but against these and all other particular sins and offences which break through the persons of men which being put together make up a perfection of wickednesse And which as a body of uncleanness dwells in men and this the Apostle calls flesh and sin even in himself And this is that which must be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone The wrath of God shall never cease burning up these lusts in this body of sin and death untill it hath quite consumed them For what other heaven can be intended or expected but a glorious uniting of all good things into God or what other hell can be imagined but a casting away of all evill things into Torment confusion and darknesse A. That heaven and hell are misteries and are also of various significations is not denied for the kingdome of heaven is sometimes taken for the outward profession of the Gospel and sometimes for the inward life and power of the Gospell c. Hell is also taken sometimes for the grave and sometimes for Satans kingdome in mens hearts for he is called the prince of the power of the aire the spirit that rules in the hearts of the Children of disobedience And although heaven and hell be misteries yet they are not altogether misteries The Scriptures are misteries but yet they are misteries revealed Christ spake sometimes plainly and spake no parable heaven and hell are misteries yet misteries revealed for there are these three things in all misteries 1. The historical or litteral narration 2. The interpretation and meaning And thirdly the truth or substance and reality And the first and the second of these be meer nothings without the third True indeed where God is there is heaven for God dwells in glory which is heaven and by his glorious appearance in his Saints he brings heaven into their hearts Againe hell is where Satan is and that is in wicked men For he dwels and raignes in them and hath his kingdome in their hearts sometimes he steales into the Saints and troubles them and disturbes their peace and causes mutinies in the soul but he dwels not there long for Christ and he cannot dwell long together Christ casts him out and suffers him no more to enter that is not to raigne And that God is not in all men in his love in Jesus Christ which is heaven hath been shewed already But he is onely so in his Saints whom he doth not onely act and order by outward and generall providences But also hath taken them into himself through his Son by his spirit and they are so united or made one with himself in that eternal spirit that they are thereby carried forth of themselves to live with him and in him Christ makes in them a separation indeed for he casts out by degrees the old man with all his deeds which is that body of sin the Apostle speaks of which is not wholy subdued while the Saints abide in the flesh and so he is gathering all the Saints which are those good things for the Saints are himself into God which is unity in glory blessednesse heaven But as for the wicked Christ is not in them nor they in him nor of him but of their father the devill And being incorporated and made one with him in sinne so they are carried on by him to live in all ungodlinesse with him and so must needs be in hell for Satan hath his kingdome in their hearts hence it is that out of that bottomlesse pit proceed murders adulteries c. and whatsoever is evill and of the devill And hence it is also that wicked men are many times tormented with hellish feares and terrors And thus wicked men are in hell when they think themselves to be in heaven even in this life But more especially by hell torment to which the wicked are reserved untill the judgement of the great day to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire when all sin and all sinners and devils and wicked spirits shall be gathered into one body and confounded or cast into a condition of torment or lake of fire which shall be kindled with the wrath of God like a river of brimstone which is the second death And whereas it is said that the evill or punishment threatened in the 21. Rev. 8. cannot relate to mens persons because if it should what would then become of all men there being not a man that hath not one or other of these sinnes in him and so conclude it to be a mystery wrapt up in a form of words To which it is answered that the Saints are in Gods esteem without sin for he lookes upon them in Christ and as Christ and so he cannot behold iniquity in them Again the Saints are born of God as to the divine nature in them and all that is born of God sins not neither can for the seed of God remaines in him Again to say and affirm that the Saints see an end of sin in them and that Christ hath finished transgression in them and that let them doe what they will they cannot sin and yet to conclude that the punishments there spoken of cannot relate to mens persons because the Saints must needs be guilty as having sin in them if this be not a mystery or rather a contradiction let all men judge Indeed the Saints even the best of them are in hell before they be in heaven for they all passe through a state of nature a kingdome of sin where while they remain unregenerated they are in the kingdome of Satan without Christ and without God in the world But when God reveales Christ in the soul when they are regenerated and born anew when Christ who is both light and life appeares then they are translated out of this kingdome of darknesse and entred into heaven then they are in the glory of God for God dwells in glory and when he hath taken any soul into himself in the least measure or degree then that soul is in heaven And this is many times but a low and clouded condition and great mixtures of light and darknesse day and night peace and trouble because they cannot apprehend any thing of God but through a veil or fleshly ordinances and formes of worship and therefore see and enjoy