Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	divine_a	reveal_v	revelation_n	1,705	5	9.2853	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20668	The collegiat suffrage of the divines of Great Britaine, concerning the five articles controverted in the Low Countries VVhich suffrage was by them delivered in the synod of Dort, March 6. anno 1619. Being their vote or voice foregoing the joint and publique judgment of that Synod.; Suffragium collegiale theologorum Magnae Britanniae de quinque controversis remonstrantium articulis. English.	Carleton, George, 1559-1628.; Synod of Dort (1618-1619)	1629 (1629)	STC 7070; ESTC S110099	65,063	183

faithfull on that side our pledge kept in the hand of God on this side Gods earnest pennie laid up in our hearts A double pledge is given for the securing not both parties but one onely to wit us And this double pledge although it be possessed on both sides yet is surely kept by the fidelitie of one part onely to wit of God Of the former Saint Paul treateth in the 2 Tim. 1.12 I am not ashamed for I know whom I have beleeved and I am perswaded that he is able to keepe that which I have committed unto him against the last day That which I have committed there is the pledge of salvation Able to keepe there is a sure preserver I know and am perswaded there is faith I am not ashamed there is confidence Concerning the latter pledge left with us the Apostle speaketh Ephes. 1.13 14. Yee were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance and 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts But if God having once given this earnest should not also give the rest of the inheritance hee should undergoe the losse of his earnest as Chrysostome most elegantly and foundly argueth in his third Sermon upon the 2 Cor. 1. And likewise in his second Sermon upon the Ephes. 1. They that truely partake of the spirit know that it is the earnest of our inheritance THE SECOND POSITION THis perswasion of faith cannot come into the act and vigor without the endeavor of holinesse and use of the meanes THe firme perswasion of Gods bestowing the gift of perseverance and of our attaining of life everlasting we attribute to the mercy of God alone and the intercession of Christ as to the originall cause but so as we withall referre it to sanctification as an unseparable companion and a most sure signe This is laid downe as an evidence of a solid faith 1 Iohn 2.3 Hereby we are sure that wee know him if we keepe his commandements This is set forth as the proper passion of justification Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit But we measure this holinesse not by the degrees of it but by the endeavor and setled purpose of him that hath it and withall we professe that this holinesse and perswasion of faith may and ought to bee forwarded and confirmed by watching fasting prayer and mortifying the flesh and other meanes thereto appointed by God Mat. 14. 38. Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation 1 Cor. 9.17 I beat downe my body and bring it into subjection lest I my selfe should be reproved Notwithstanding in the meane while let us so reckon this our diligence and pious use of these meanes in the number of the exercises of our freed will that withall wee account that very diligence and endeavour amongst the helpes of assisting grace and motions of the holy Spirit dwelling in us Now it is certaine that this firme perswasion of which we speake cannot put forth it selfe without these holy endeavors 1 Because sanctification the companion of justification cannot consist without the intent of obedience An habituall purpose whereof although interrupted by many slips is sufficient to the Elect for the maintaining the state of justification entire in it selfe But for the present comfort of this confidēce is necessarily required an actuall purpose of such obediēce neither can any man out of the testimony of the spirit speaking to his heart say I doe now confidently beleeve that I shall remaine in the state of grace to the end unless he also adde out of the sincere intent of his minde I doe now most constantly purpose with my selfe to walke in the wayes of Gods holy Commandements 2 Much lesse can it be imagined that this lively act of our confidence can stand with an actuall and direct purpose of sinning For as one habit is opposed to another habit so also an act is opposed to an act Neither can we without a senselesse contradiction imagine a man concluding after this manner I am confident that life everlasting cannot be taken away from mee and yet withall I resolve with my selfe to be a slave to my alluring affections Our Saviour shewes that these contrary resolutions cannot stand together Mat. 6.24 No man can serve two Masters THE THIRD POSITION THis perswasion hath not that degree of certitude that can alwayes shut out all feare of the contrary but is sometimes lively sometimes languishing sometimes as in great temptations none at all IN spiritual gifts with which we are furnished in this life sincerity is required perfection of degrees is not to be expected Even that gift which is the hand by which wee lay hold on all the rest hath its diseases and weaknesses so that the perswasion of the faithfull concerning their owne salvation and perseverance cannot alwayes enjoy the highest degree of certitude 1 The first infirmity ariseth out of the ground it selfe whereupon this personall confidence is built which seemes to be of lower degree then the certitude of dogmaticall faith For the Articles of the Catholique Faith doe worke upon our assent as immediate and originall principles but the truth of this speciall faith is not enforced thence as a necessary consequent but is added therto by way of assumption Therefore there can be no greater certaintie of that conclusion which frameth this perswasion then such as is in the weaker of the premisses But that assumption is grounded upon experimentall arguments weighed and applied by a mans private conscience which arguments or markes since they are sometimes questioned whether or no they be true and concluding evidences nay often times are hid under the cloud of temptation so that they the while cannot shine forth to our present comfort what wonder if so bethe faithfull have not alwaies at hand a lively and firme perswasion concerning their eternall salvation Nay which is more the very principles of the Catholique faith howsoever they are by the light of revelation cleare in themselves yet for as much as they are knowne to us by the certainty not of evidence but onely of adhesion they doe not procure in us an assent of such uniforme stabilitie as is yeelded unto Mathematicall demonstrations and inbred notions admitted by all men But in our contemplating these revealed principles our of the remainder of our carnall diffidence sometime there arise as wee may so say certaine vapours or mists through which the light of divine truth in it selfe immutable to our weake eyes seemeth to tremble and suffer a kinde of refraction How much more frequent and more lasting is that mistake which may betide any of the faithfull in the viewing his own personal confidence Their eyes truly would alwayes waver except both this common revelation of the Catholique Faith and also that personall application made by the conscience were confirmed and sealed unto our hearts by the holy Ghost

the Preacher speakes Marke 6.20 Herod heard Iohn gladly Acts 13 46. The Iewes refuse to heare the Gospell Psal. 58.4 The wicked stop their eares like the deafe Adder THE SECOND POSITION THere are certaine inward effects going before conversion or regeneration which by the power of the word and Spirit are stirred up in the hearts of men not yet justified As are a knowledge of Gods will a sense of sinne a feare of punishment a bethinking of freedome and some hope of pardon THE grace of God is not wont to bring men to the state of justification in which we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ by a sudden Enthusiasme or rapture but by divers degrees of foregoing actions taming and preparing them through the Ministery of the word 1 This we may see in those who upon hearing S. Peters Sermon feele the burden of their sinne are stricken with feare and sorrow desire deliverance and conceive some hope of pardon All which may bee collected of those words Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe 2 This the very nature of the thing requires for as in the naturall generation of man there are many previous dispositions which go before the bringing in of the form so also in the spirituall generation by many actions of grace which must goe before doe we come to the spirituall nativity 3 To conclude this appeares by the instruments which God uses for the regenerating of men For he imployeth the Ministery of men and the instrument of the word 1 Cor. 4.15 I have begotten you through the Gospell But if God would regenerate or justifie a wicked man immediately being prepared by no knowledge no sorrow no desire no hope of pardon there would be no need of the ministery of men nor of the preaching of the word for this purpose neither would any care lye upon the Ministers dividing the word of God aright fitly and wisely first to wound the consciences of their auditors with the terrors of the Law then to raise them up with the promises of the Gospell and to exhort them to beg faith and repentance at Gods hand by prayers and teares THE THIRD POSITION WHom God doth thus prepare by his Spirit through the meanes of the word those doth hee truly and seriously call and invite to faith and conversion BY the nature of the benefit offered and by the evident word of God we must judge of those helpes of grace which are bestowed upon men and not by the abuse or the event Therefore when the Gospell of its owne nature calls men to repentance and salvation when the incitements of divine grace tend the same way we must not suppose any thing is done fainedly by God This is proved by those earnest and patheticall intreaties 2 Cor. 5.20 We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled vnto God Those exhortations 2 Cor. 6.1 Wee beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vaine those expostulations Gal. 1.6 I marvell that you are so soone removed from him that called you to the grace of Christ those promises Apoc. 3.20 Behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voice and open the doore I will come in to him But if God should not seriously invite all whom he vouchsafes this gift of his word and Spirit to a serious conversion surely both God should deceive many whom he calls in his Sonnes name and the messengers of the Euangelicall promises might bee accused of false witnesse and those who being called to conversion doe neglect to obey might bee more excusable For that calling by the word and the Spirit cannot be thought to leave men unexcusable which is onely exhibited to this end to make them unexcusable THE FOVRTH POSITION THose whom God hath thus disposed he doth not forsake nor cease to further them in the true way to conversion before he be forsaken of them by a voluntary neglect or repulse of this initiall or entring grace THe talent of grace once given by God is taken from none but from him who first buries it by his owne fault Mat. 25.28 Hence is it that in the Scriptures every where wee are admonished that we resist not the Spirit that we quench not the Spirit that we receive not the grace of God in vaine that wee depart not from God Yea that is most evidently noted to bee the reason of Gods forsaking man because God is first forsaken by man Prov. 1.24 Because I have called and you refused I will laugh at your calamity 2 Chron. 24.20 Because yee have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you But never in the Scriptures is there the least mention that God is wont or is willing at any time without some fault of man going before to take away from any man the aid of his exciting grace or any help which he hath once conferred towards mans conversion Thus the Orthodoxe Fathers who had to doe with the Pelagians ever taught It is the will of God that wee continue in a good will who before he be forsaken forsakes no man and oftentimes converts many that forsake him THE FIFTH POSITION THese foregoing effects wroght in the mindes of men by the power of the word and the Spirit may be stifled and utterly extinguished by the fault of our rebellious will and in many are so that some in whose hearts by the vertue of the word and the Spirit some knowledge of divine truth some sorrow for sin some desire and care of deliverance have beene imprinted are changed quite contrary reject and hate the truth deliver themselves up to their lusts are hardned in their sins and without all desire or care of freedome from them rot and putrifie in them MAtth. 13.19 The wicked one commeth and catcheth away that which was sowne in his heart 2 Pet. 2.21 It had beene better for them not to have knowne the way of righteousnesse then after they have knowne it to turne from the holy commandement delivered unto them But it is happened to them according to the true Proverb The dog is turned to his owne vomit Heb. 6.4 It is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gifts and were made partakers of the holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to returne them againe to repentance Many doe quickly entertaine the light of the minde but the understanding it selfe hath not the same force or power in all and many when they seem enriched with faith and understanding yet they want charity and cannot hold fast to those things which they see by faith and understanding because there is no persevering in that which is not loved with the whole heart THE SIXT POSITION THe very elect in those acts going before