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	gospel_n	true_a	2,072	5	5.0703	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26928	Faithful souls shall be with Christ the certainty proved and their Christianity described, and exemplified in the truely Christian life and death of that excellent saint, Henry Ashhurst, Esq ... : briefly and truly published for the conviction of hypocrites and the malignant, the strengthning of believers, and the imitation of all, especially the masters of families in London / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1265; ESTC R4853	35,484	74

misery as not to make it his chiefest care For I see that if a man have but a Law-Suit on which all his estate depends or a tryal on which his life depends he cannot forget it or make light of it He will not drink 〈…〉 or play away the little time in which his bu●●●● must be done And can any one soundly believe that his Soul at death shall go to Christ in glory and not set more by such a hope than by all the riches and sport and pleasure and vain-glory of so short a life as this or can any man soundly believe that the wicked and unholy shall go to everlasting punishment and yet not make it his chief care to escape it sure as mad and bad as mans corrupted mind is this will scarce stand with Humane nature I judge of others by my self If I had never had at the worst a secret uncertainty whether the Gospel be true and Souls immortal I might have been surprized indeed to a sudden temptation to some sin but I could never have thought that a man in his wits should choose any life but resolved holiness Nor could I have chosen any other If I see a man a careless neglecter of his soul that maketh no great matter of sin or duty or maketh not God Christ and Heaven the subject of his most serious ruling thoughts his greatest business in the World but sheweth us that his health and wealth and honour and pleasure are better loved and more earnestly sought and faster held I will not believe that this man taketh the Gospel and the Souls future state therein described to be a cettain truth let him say what he will he doubteth of it at his heart And such men use to say when they speak out I know what I have here but I know not what I shall have hereafter Could I keep what I have I would let others take what is promised in Heaven But O man thou knowest thou canst not keep what thou hast shortly thy Soul must be required and called away and then whose are the things which thou hast loved Luke 12. 19 20. I will therefore say more Though men had no certainty of dwelling with Christ and doubted whether his word be true yet it were worse than madness not to prefer the bare probability that I say not possibility of a future endless glory when endless misery is probable to the refusers before all here that can be set against it O what is this transitory dream of worldly fleshly pleasure to everlasting joy or misery Verily every man at his best estate in worldy respects is altogether Vanity Psalm 39. 5. O mark how Emphatical every word is Verily it is no doubt every man high and low good and bad in bodily and worldly respects only at his best or setled estate not only in pain and poverty and age but in his strength and wit and wealth and honour on the throne as well as on the dunghill is vanity that is an untrusty lie and shadow that seemeth something and is next to nothing and this altogether in meer worldly corporal respects in all that he hath to glory or take pleasure in What need we more to prove all this than to foresee how the Dream and Tragedy endeth A little while we run up and down and eat and drink and talke and sport and sometime laugh and sometime weep and then change our pomp and pride for a Shroud and Coffin and are laid to rot in a grave of earth where these idol pampered bodies be turned themselves into the quality of their darksome habitation And if these were our best were not every man at his best estate altogether vanity And if a meer probability of the life to come in reason should resolve all men for serious holiness how can we think that a certain or firm belief would not do it By this then it is past doubt that Hypocrisie reigneth in all meer nominal Christians and in all that live not a holy life and indeed in most men in the world They are false in professing to believe that Christ is true and his Gospel certain truth and that at death they must go to Heaven or Hell if their lives shew not that Heaven and Hell are greater and more prevailing matters with them than all the fleshly provisions pleasures and glory of this world Hypocrites are distinguished from professed Infidels but if they were not unbelievers at the heart they were not Hypocrites in professing Faith The Scripture giveth these titles or attributes therefore to saving Faith 1 Tim. 1. 5. It is called Faith unfeigned or not hypocritical or dissembled and Philem. 6. it is called Effectual and Gal. 5. 6. Faith that works by Love and Iam. 2. Faith that is not dead but working to perfection it is not unseigned if it be not effectual You cannot make a Man believe that a Bear pursueth him or his House is on Fire or his Life in danger but he will accordingly bestir him You cannot draw a Man to other business from the care of his Life if he believe that it lieth on his present care O Sirs the Hypocrites belief of another World and his lifeless opinion conquered by secret unbelief will shortly fall as an house built on the sand Matth. 7. 23. and no Heart can now fully conceive how terrible to him the fall will be When you see that there is no more tarrying here and that death and an endless life are come a dead profession and secret unbelief will leave you then to dispair and horror It is not the name of a Christian that will then serve to comfort or to save your Souls I do do not say that no Man shall be saved that hath any doubting even of the Gospel and the life to come But I say you cannot be saved if your belief of it prevail not to engage you in a holy Life and conquer not the Flesh the World and the Devil It must be a prevailing Faith But I suppose you are convinced that a sound and firm belief of the passage of departing Souls to Christ or unto misery would certainly resolve Men for a holy Life But some say If we be uncertain how can we help it we are out of sight and we have not the command of our own understandings we would be sure what becomes of Souls with all our Hearts but we cannot attain it Ans. Christ came into the World to teach it us such knowledge is too high and precious to be attained with a slothful wish or to be had without the use of the means which Christ hath appointed us Have you learned of Christ with a humble and teachable willing mind Have you not been diverted and blinded by the things which you knew were but deceitful vanity Have you set your understandings awork with such serious consideration and so long as the trial of so great a matter doth require Have you sought to able and faithful

that made the world or our own or others Souls and it is not our right to determine of their time and events It is one prime Agent Supreme Ruler and Ultimate End One that is Infinite in Power Wisdom and Goodness who is Omnipresent Immutable and every way perfect that must actuate order and bless a world of such imperfect and differing individuals and not such ignorant understandings such partial and ill guided wills and such impotent powers as ours are He that maketh the Watch determineth how many hours it shall go The giver of Life and Time must give us the measures of it It is our part to spend it well It is because the Creator having left us to some liberty and trust about our selves we are the misusers of it that there are so many disorders and consequently calamities in the world and on our selves and ours as there are and if the God of Love did not keep the over ruling determination in his hand and bring good out of all our evil and harmony out of our discords and confusions what a Chaos or Hell would the World become Let us therefore humbly and willingly leave Gods own work to himself he will do all well and at last we shall understand it and let us mind our own He hath taken up our Brothers soul from earth it is our part to think how to improve this our own are following Our hour is at hand Our oyl is wasting apace Our glass is almost run every pulse every breath every word leaveth us one less of the number appointed us It is our great concern to look inwards and look upwards and with our utmost diligence to study how to spend the short time that remaineth that we may die in safety peace and hope and follow the departed Saints to Glory To instruct my self and you herein I have chosen this Text as giving us both sure directions and such great and comfortable promises as in life and at death we may boldy trust They are spoken by no doubtful Messenger but by the Mouth of Christ himself and that to men who were under our temptations and earnestly desired to see Christ glorified on earth and to partake of outward greatness here to see that famous man who had wrought so many miracles and lately raised the Dead But he tells them that both he and they must die before they can be glorified and that they must overcome the inordinate love of this life if ever they would attain a life of Blessedness vers 23 24 25. And that they might not by uncertainty of the end or way say as Philip We know not whither thou goest and how shall we know the way he Summarily tells them both The way is to Serve him and follow him The end that 's promised is To be where he is and to be honoured of his Father As if he should say I know that your weakness and remaining Carnality is such that you would fain see me Reign as an universal King on Earth that you might be advanced by me in the flesh and it is a hard Lesson to you to learn to lay down this life which is so dear to you and to pass into a World which you never saw and know so little of But have I not by my Doctrine Life and frequent Miracles and newly by raising Lazarus from the dead convinced you that I am the true Messiah sent of God to whom you may boldly trust the conduct and disposal of your Lives and Souls If so then see that you absolutely trust me Learn of me Serve me and follow me and let this satisfie you living and dying that you shall speed as I my self do and be with me where I am though the place and state be yet unseen to you and there you shall by my Father be advanced to far greater dignity and honour than in this sinful life and world you are capable of And of all this I give here my promise which you must believe and trust if you will be saved by me This is the plain Exposition of the Text But let us more distinctly inquire I. What is here meant by Serving Christ II. What it is to Follow him And afterwards III. What it is to be where he is IV. And what to be Honoured by his Father I. Some that by false and narrow notions have received a wrong opinion of Saving Faith may be puzzled at this that Serving Christ and following him are made the necessary terms or conditions of being where he is And some say that Iustifying faith and ●●●ing Faith are two different things And some say that Christ himself did not clearly preach the doctrine of Justification by Faith but left it for Saint Paul But the plain truth is that in the Gospel it is all one To be a Believer a Christian and a Disciple of Christ in Covenant with him as the true Messiah And in those times the Disciples of any great and famous Teachers were taken into their Families and were their Servants Not in a Worldly common work but in order to the ends of their Office and Instructions It is the same word which we often translate Deacons And as it was then usual with Iews and Heathens at their great feasts for the Servitours to give every Guest his part by the appointment of the ruler of the Feast so the Spirit by the Apostles did institute Church Deacons to be servants to distribute the provisions made at their love Feasts and the proportions allowed for each ones relief to look to the poor and to execute such Church Orders as the present Bishop or Elders did appoint By which you may see how big the Bishops Church then was And so Christ calleth all Christians his Deacons Ministers or Servants and some above others peculiarly in office as those that were to serve him as the Saviour of the World for their own and other mens salvation As his Relation to us partaketh by Analogie of many so is our service to him It is as the service of a Scholar in obedient and diligent humble learning As the obedience of a Patient to his Physician As the obedience of a Beggar in asking and thankfully accepting As the obedience of a Malefactor who thankfully taketh a pardon and if a Rebel promiseth to lay down Armes and live in true subjection to his Prince As the service of a Child that liveth dependently in dutiful gratitude and love It is not to give Christ any thing that he needeth but to be readier to Hear him than to offer him the sacrifice of fools who by thinking to oblige him by their gifts do but offend him The matter of our required service is 1. To confess with grief our sin our misery and our need of him his grace and mercy 2. To learn understand and believe his Word 3. There by to know God from whom we were revolted and to return to him in the hand of our Mediator by absolute resignation devotion

Ministers of Christ to help you where you found your self insufficient Have you daily beg'd the help of the Spirit of God as knowing that heavenly things must be discerned by a heavenly light Have you honestly obeyed so much as you did know If you have done this which reason requireth I do not think that thus waiting on God he will leave you to any damnable unbelief or to an unholy sensual life But because the strengthening of our belief herein is the most needful thing even to the best both for their hope and joy and duty and all that understand themselves must earnestly desire that their belief of the Gospel and the Life to come did reach to a satisfying certainty I will shortly repeat the proofs that must ascertain us Though I have largely done it in my Books called The Life of Faith and The Reasons of the Christian Religion and The Unreasonableness of Infidelity I care not how oft when necessary I repeat them and wish that they were more of the daily study of those that now study Controversies or only Superstructures I. And first Nature giveth us these Arguments to prove Mans future State 1. God hath made Man with an essential capacity to think and care as his greatest concern what shall become of his Soul when he dieth And God maketh none of his Works in vain much less so noble a one as Man 2. A bare probability of the life to come as now revealed with our certainty of the brevity and vanity of this Life maketh it the interest and certain duty of all Men in the World to be far more careful for their future state than for the Body and this present Life He liveth against Reason that doth not this 3. And can a wise Man believe that God bindeth all Men by their essential Reason to make the care of a thing that is not or ever shall be to be the chief business of their lives and that deceit and falshood should be the guide of all our greatest actions and Man should be made to follow a lie to his everlasting disappointment Judge reasonably whether this be like to be the work of the most Great and Wise and Holy God 4. History and experience assureth us that it is the expectation of a Life to come the hope of Reward there and the fear of punishment which are Gods means for the actual government of mankind And though many Atheists are in the World and more Saduces and Unbelievers yet few if any are wholly such but have Consciences that keep them in some awe And Laws and professed Religion tell you that it is hopes and fears of another life which are the ruling principles which as they reign in the best so few of the worst will directly contradict And were it not for such fears of punishment hereafter the Lives of no Princes or Enemies would be safe from destroying Malice Policy or Power And is it likely that this World is governed by a Lie by that God who wants no Power Wisdom or Love to govern it by Truth and who maketh the best Men the greatest haters of Lying that they may be like Him 5. And how comes the belief of the Souls immortality to be so common a principle in the nature of Man if it be not true II. But seeing it is the Gospel that must give us the full and satisfying certainty keep these few evidences of its Truth continually Printed on your Minds 1. Remember that Promises Types and Prophesies foretold Christs coming long before even Prophesies sealed with Miracles and fulfilled 2. Remember that Christs own Person and Doctrine did bear that Image of God which is unimitable and had that Power Wisdom and Love which prove them to be of God Gods Image and Superscription discernable by holy minds doth difference the Gospel from all the words of fallible Men. 3. Remember that it was proved to be of God by multitudes of open and uncontrolled Miracles And God will not work Miracles remedilesly to deceive mankind especially the great Miracle of Christs Resurrection long by him foretold and his visible ascending up to Heaven 4. The sending down the promised Spirit on the Apostles and on other believers then for Languages Miracles Prophesyings c. And the long exercise of these Tongues and Miracles by many and in many parts of the World and the gathering of the Churches by them 5. The full and certain Historical conveyance of these matters of fact to us in and by the sacred Scriptures Church Ordinances and Tradition as the Statutes of the Land are delivered us without any weakning contradiction of the said History or fact 6. Above all the continued Testimony of Gods Spirit in all true believers that is the same Spirit which indited the Scripture writeth it out on all holy Souls or formeth reneweth and disposeth them to answerable holyness even to the Image of God in holy Light and Love and Life and to a heavenly Mind and Conversation and to be sober ●●st and loving to all And God would never bless a Lye to do the greatest work in this World to make Men good and like himself And remember that the whole frame and tendency of the Spirits sanctifying work on Souls is to prepair them for a Life to come by causing them to believe it desire it hope for it and seek it and hate sin and part with any thing to obtain it All sound believers have this work upon them and are of such a Mind and Spirit And this Spirit or holy nature in them is Christs witness and theirs They have the witness in themselves 1 Ioh. 5. 10. 7. And remember that even the Malice of Satan affordeth us much help to confirm our Faith It is notorious that he keepeth up through all the World a war against Christ and against our hopes of future glory How he followeth Men with inward importunate temptations against their own interest and reason and what proof of his malice we have in Humane wickedness and in Witches Witchrafts or operations on Bodies Apparitions c. I have so often proved to you that I will now forbear the repetition And doth not all this contain assuring evidence of the Truth of Christ his Gospel and our future hopes Use Come then fellow Christians Let us pray Lord increase our Faith Let us detest all suggestions which tend to Unbelief and so would bring us to the rank of Bruits and to despair Let us live according to our most holy Faith and shew our selves and others that we heartily believe that the Servants of Christ that follow him shall be with him where he is O pray for Faith Meditate for Faith Lament your Unbelief O fools that we are and slow of Heart to believe a Gospel so revealed and confirmed Why are we so fearful of dying O we of little Faith Were but this one Text written on our Hearts and turned into Faith and Hope yea did we believe Christ speaking it but as

compleat perfect Teacher who teacheth you by words and works and inspiration and can make you what he bids you be and leaveth out nothing that is necessary to your salvation 7. And you have the only sufficient Guid to happiness He is the Way the Truth and the Life and no man cometh to the Father but by him No man but he hath revealed the God and Glory which he hath fully seen and known All men are liers and deceivers not to be trusted further than some way they have learnt of him by the teaching of his Works or Word or Spirit And now shall we need to say more to men that are already vowed to Christ in their Baptism who profess themselves Christians who know that they must die and who know that there is no other hope or way to perswade them to be what they profess that they may not miss of what they hope for But the following Promises if believed will perswade you III. Where I am there shall my servant be They that Serve and follow Christ shall in their measure speed as he doth and be with him where he is Quest. And where is that Ans. It is certainly in no ill place Though it be a controversie whether Christ descerded to Hell it is certain that now he is not there And therefore his members shall not be there He is certainly in Paradise for there he promised the converted thief to be that day with him He is in Heaven Acts 1. 11. This same Iesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven Acts 3. 21. Whom the heaven must receive till the time of restitution of all things John 17. And now O Father glorifie me with thine own self Vers. 13. And now I come to thee It is in the Glorious presence of God that Christ now abideth in our nature Even at the Right hand of God Matth. 26. 64. Mark 14. 62. 16. 19. Luk. 22. 6. 9. Act. 7. 55. 56. Rom. 8. 34. Eph. 1. 20 Col. 3. 1. Heb. 1. 3 13. 8. 1. 12. 2. 10. 12. 1 Pet. 3. 22. Therefore though many Texts do seem to intimate that he will return to earth again and that the New Ierusalem shall come down from Heaven and that we look for a new Heaven and Earth in which righteousness shall dwell yet these Texts do fully prove that faithful Souls go presently to Christ who is in Heaven and that there will be no such descent to earth as shall be any diminution of the Glory of the Saints For it shall be no diminution of the Glory of Christ And we shall be where Christ will be If Heaven come down to Earth and the Vail be drawn it will be no loss 2. That departed faithful Souls go to him the Scripture elsewhere also tells us Ioh. 17. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me Luke 23. 43. To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 16. 9. When we fail here we shall be received into the everlasting habitations Vers. 22. The beggar died and was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosome Vers. 25. Now he is comforted 2 Cor. 5. 1 8. We know that if our earthly house of this 〈…〉 were dissolved we have a building of God 〈…〉 not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to 〈…〉 upon with our house which is from heaven that 〈…〉 might be swallowed up of life Vers. ● We are confident and willing rather to be 〈◊〉 from the body and present with the Lord. Phil. 1. 21 22. To me to live in Christ and 〈…〉 gain having a desire to depart to be with 〈…〉 Heb. 12. 22 23 24. We are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the heavenly Ierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the Spirits of just men made perfect and to Iesus the mediator of the new Covenant Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them I heap all these Texts together for my self as well as you that we may see that as the faithful shall certainly have a blessed resurrection so their departing souls at death shall certainly be with Christ in glory For I take the assurance of the Souls immortality and felicity at death to be a point that deserveth as much of our thoughtful diligence as any one that we have to think of He is mad that doubteth whether there be a God if he live with his eyes open in the world And as for Christianity it is Life and Immortality which Christ came to secure us of and bring to light And he that by the light of Nature doth but believe the Souls immortality and a life of retribution is much prepared to be a Christian so suitable will he find Christianity to our everlasting interest But yet all will be dark to men and seem uncertain till Christ be their Teacher and they truly believe in him and take it on his certain word Truly believe that Iesus is the Christ and his Gospel true and there is no room for a doubt of the Immortality of Souls and future blessedness so plainly is it exprest in all the Gospel The Socinians that look for nothing till the Resurrection dream of a dreaming sleep of Souls but dare not talk of any cessation or annihilation of them For then a Resurrection is a Contradiction Another soul may be created but it cannot be the same that was annihilated And as no man can believe that Christ speaketh truth and is Christ indeed but he must needs believe his promise that the faithful Soul shall be where he is So no man can truly believe that all faithful Souls and only such shall be with Christ and partake of blessedness but it will constrain him to a life of serious holiness at least if it feast him not with the foretast of heavenly joys Can you imagine that any man can firmly believe that all and only holy souls go to Christ in glory when they leave the body and yet not seek first the Kingdom of God and make the securing of this his chiefest care and business in the World It cannot be every man loveth himself And no man can be indifferent whether his Soul be in Heaven or Hell for ever Dulness and present diverting things may make a man negligent and inconsiderate about lesser matters where the loss seemeth tolerable But I cannot believe that if a man be awake and in his wits any thing but secret unbelief and doubting can make one so dull or inconsiderate about his everlasting joy or