Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A86160
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The heart opened to Christ Jesus. Translated out of High Dutch for the good of all men.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing H1311; Thomason E1287_1; ESTC R208966
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25,961
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108
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to keep the Word of God Should God through his Son impose us things Impossible What an absurd speech is this Shall a Man think to make the most gracious and most merciful God a Tyrant O abominable Error to the greatest hinderance of the true Birth When Peter gave Christ hindersom and offensive counsel disswading him that he with his suffering should not fulfil the Will of his Father Christ reproved Peter calling his words the speech of Satan saying Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savorest not the things that be of God but those that be of men Mat. 16.23 Mark 8.33 Even so may a man likewise say to those that rather speak to please and nourish the security of the flesh and quench the Spirit then to help and set forth the Word of God by men and yet notwithstanding will be held and called good Christians therefore saith Christ Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 7.21 but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Christ will have his Word kept in deed and not only with opinion tongue or oral faith comparing such a one with a wise man which built his house upon a rock Mat. 7.25 The true faith makes indeed up the house but good works of Love lays the foundation as Christ saith Joh. 14.23 If a man love me he will keep my words which consisteth properly in our life and conversation viz. to walk in his steps even as he hath walked 1 John 2.6 Therefore Christ neither regarded nor required in his followers any prating wit but obedient works of Love and charitable Deeds proceeding from a free heart and he saith further Whosoever will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Mark 8.34 Neither may any man boast of Christ as if he knew him unless he keepeth his Commandments for otherwise he is a Lyar in whom there is no truth But whosoever keepeth his Word in him verily is the love of God perfected Hereby know we that we are in him 1 Joh. 4.5 Also every one that doth righteousness is born of him 1 Joh. 2.29 Yea he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous 1 Joh. 3.7 Now what want or Impossibility is here Are the Commandments of christ too too grievous Saith not John that the Commandments of Christ are not grievous 1 John 5.3 And Christ himself wisheth us and all others to come freely and confidently unto him and take his yoke upon us being that his yoke is easie and his burden light Matth. 11.30 Now by whom I pray is the truth by Christ or by Antichrist But here lies all the difficulty viz. Antichrist and the Child of this World will not turn in and enter to the Love of God fully and aright leaving the cursed love of the world and of the flesh which hath taken so deep roots in his heart Therefore he had rather make God to be unjust and with the Excuse of Impossibility justifie himself leaving the whole Burden upon the neck of Christ only that he himself may go free and in the security of his wicked spirit and flesh according to his own bestial desire and disposition jump as it were into the Kingdom of God as if he need to do nothing and take no care for his Salvation but only to live freely forth on in pleasures and carnal lust of his Heart proceeding from the false and venomous seed of the wicked Serpent and yet would merit Heaven thereby though he never put on again the Heavenly Image of Christ changing his Bestial and Diabolical Malice into Love But what doth a Men else but shew forth that he hath an abomination to the Childship of God which is in Christ Jesus For St John saith in his 1 Epistle cap. 5.2 By this we know that we love the Children of God when we love God and keep his Commandments for this is the love of God viz. that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous To whom therefore Love is hard and grievous he is as yet far from God and his Image being as fast and deep in Lyes Darkness and Death 1 Joh. 2.9 21. and cap. 3.14 Yea he is an Antichrist christ bearing the Mark of the Beast and of the Whore in his Heart and in his forehead Apoc. 19. c. For God Himself is Love and Love is God and he that loveth not knoweth not God 1 Joh. 4.7 Whosoever therefore will be and be called a right true Christian and attain to perfection desiring to be one Spirit with God and obtain his Image again he must make haste and strive to this Gate where the Love of Christ stands open continually and diligently exercising himself therein especially in the inward Image and Likeness of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ esteeming it above all Creatures and then nothing will be hard and grievous for him for what can be grievous to him that rightly loveth Now to learn this aright we must look and consider well what is to be observed in christ CHAP. V. What are those seven thins in Christ which ought to be well and especially considered And how we may attain to the perfection of Love THere are summarily seven principal Points in our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ well and especially to be considered Viz. 1. His wonderous Humiliation and Conception 2. His Birth of a Virgin 3. His whole Life in his Infancy Youth and Mans Age 4. His bitter Passion and Death 5. His Descending into Hell Resurrection Apparition and Clarification 6. His Ascension and Entrance into his Glory again 7. His Glorious Manifestation or Revelation and coming again to Judgment and to his Kingdom In these seven Points all the Mysteries of God are comprehended without which no Man can be a true Teacher in the Church of God and of christ according to the Gifts of the Holy Spirit which are ordained by God to such Ministry although they are not absolutely necessary for every Child of God for it is not Knowledg and Science that saveth and maketh us happy in Christ Jesus but the true Faith being effectual by Love Therefore the knowledg wisdom and understanding of children is one thing and another thing that of the young Men and another thing that of Fathers and old Men for every one hath his own peculiar Gift of Grace of the Spirit of God as Paul teacheth 1 Cor. 14. For it is not a meer Outward Literal or Habitual work of Reason borrowed from the Heathens as now adays is taught in the Schools where the Spirit of God with his true Gifts is extruded and rejected But the Spirit of God and of Christ imparteth in to every one as much as it pleaseth and according as the holy Souls do order and behave themselves in praying aright that they may be fully and fundamentally Partakers of the Divine