Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	faith_n	scripture_n	word_n	9,016	5	4.5069	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60471	The designed end to the Socinian controversy, or, A rational and plain discourse to prove, that no other person but the Father of Christ is God most high by John Smith.	Smith, John, fl. 1673-1680.	1695 (1695)	Wing S4103; ESTC R15169	29,912	68

Contradiction to the most self-evident Sentiments of humane Understanding But some may say If such Passages as these are so generally to be overlook'd in the Business of Religion why then did God cause them to be recorded in the sacred Scripture I answer that it may as well be asked why God made so many sorts of small and as we think useless Insects to live upon the Earth since we know not what Benefit they are of to the World Doubtless God who does nothing in vain made them for some great Ends though our short-sighted Understanding cannot perceive what those excellent Ends of his are Even so likewise will his Wisdom be manifested some way or other by what to us is yet hard to be understood in Scripture And though we are ignorant of the true meaning of many of the most obscure and doubtful Parts thereof yet the Ends and Purposes of God in causing them to be written either are or shall in due time be accomplished In the mean time we ought to magnify that manifest Goodness of God who hath communicated to Mankind such a number of plain and evident Precepts as will be fully sufficient for Salvation if we carefully observe them All are concern'd in the Business of Life Eternal therefore hath God given us Laws sutable to our common Capacities The Gospel of Christ was preach'd to the Poor which intimates that the Glad-tidings of Salvation did not consist of unintelligible Mysteries but of such plain and evident Notions as did fit the Understandings of the lowest People Of Faith and Reason There are a sort of People in the World of several false Perswasions who when they can no longer maintain their Errors against the Power of true Reason fly to Faith as their last Refuge and tell us that 't is by Faith only that we are made able to overcome the World 1 Joh. 5. 4. And that therefore 't is necessary for Men to believe what yet they cannot comprehend To this I answer That Faith indeed is the chief Duty of the Christian Religion because 't is the Belief of God's Promises and Threatnings that does ingage Mankind to the Obedience of his Precepts Few I doubt would be religious were there no Fear of Hell nor Hopes of Heaven 'T is said that all things are possible to him that believes Mark 9. 23. which in other Words imports that no Difficulty nor Hazard how great soever shall be able to stop them in their Christian Race And in this Sense it only is that Faith is said to be the Victory that overcometh the World But though 't is only a firm Perswasion of the Truth of God's Promises and Threatnings that inspires the Faithful with Courage to overcome and conquer the Temptations not only of the Devil but of the Lusts of this World too yet this is no Argument that therefore we must assent to that which we see no Reason to believe for then we might be every whit as liable to believe things false as things that are true Wherefore it behoves us to be very watchful and circumspect in avoiding false Principles for Error of any kind will rather make us Slaves to the Devil than enable us to overcome and conquer him As therefore thou oughtst to imbrace Truth wheresoever thou dost find it so be as ready to relinquish Errors when by carefully examining into Religion thou hast discovered them to be such for 't is in every respect as Heroick an Act of Faith to believe our selves in the wrong when we really are so as 't is to adhere stedfastly to a Truth undoubted Know then that no kind of Faith can be true that is certainly unreasonable for the Light of Nature is as much God's Law as Divine Revelation and none must ever think that God's Law can contradict it self Right self-evident Reason is the only Touchstone that Men have to distinguish Truth from Error and 't is the Agreement even of Scripture with this Reason that makes us know it to be the Word of God 't is not our Forefathers saying so but the exact Concurrence of the Witness of our Spirit and that Testimony And though some would perswade us not at all to trust to Reason in Matters of Religion yet 't is observable that those very Men that exclaim most against it are yet necessitated to give Reasons of their own to prove if 't were possible that your Reason is not to be relied on and certainly that Guide must needs be most safe whom the whole World in some kind or other do find it so necessary to follow Of the true Nature of Religion 'T is certain that the Laws of Religion are design'd by God for the only Good of Mankind he forbids some things and commands others only because the one is prejudicial to Man's Well-being and the other is absolutely necessary to his Peace and Happiness In order then to the true Happiness of this Life there is required a sutable way of living even such as respects the Universal Good of the whole Kind which in short is that which Men call a Life of Holiness or a Life perfectly free from every kind of Injustice or Mischief both to one's self and others And as for the Heavenly State that is a State of perfect Goodness and Purity and 't is impossible that any one can take delight in that Divine kind of Life hereafter which he hated here And for that Reason could the Wicked be admitted into Heaven yet then would they be unhappy by reason that there none of those base and ignoble Pleasures would be found which their corrupted Minds on Earth did love and admire 'T is then only a good Life on Earth that can fit us for the Heavenly Inheritance Now this Goodness of Life so necessary to Man's both present and future Bliss does not consist in Speculation but in Practice Belief is of no other Use than as it enacts Obedience and that 's the Reason that the Day of Judgment is represented as taking no notice of the Opinions but of the Practices of Men. Have you fed the Hungry Have you clothed the Naked Have you visited the Sick Mat. 25. 36. At that great Solemnity the Inquiry will not be What had you in the World or what did you profess but what good Deeds have you done therein how has your Care been to promote the Universal Good of rational Beings Have you renounced the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life 1 John 2. 26. and lived soberly and righteously and godlily in this present World Tit. 2. 12. and done justly and loved Mercy and walked humbly with God Mich. 6. 8. Now if 't is the Goodness of our Practice that is the one thing necessary to Salvation then the disbelieving either a few doubtful or else a few unreasonable Opinions can never be dangerous Let us then as to the Point now under Examination ask our selves but this one Question Will the Belief of the Doctrine

Now they must impose strangely upon their own Understandings that can unrequired by the Gospel believe him to be truly God even Infinite in all Perfection of whom 't is said so plainly that whatever Power and Dignity he has is given him by another Christ not God because God and He are plainly distinguished This Consideration alone of it self is a very strong Argument to prove our Lord Christ not to be really and truly God since he is every where spoken of as a Person that differs as much from God as a noble Subject differs from his Prince or King Thus 't is said of him that God anointed him Acts 10. 38. That he offered himself up to God Heb. 9. 14. That God raised him from the Dead Acts 2. 24. That he was exalted by God Acts 2. 33. That he ascended to God Joh. 20. 17. That he sits at God's right Hand Acts 7. 56. That God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us Eph. 4. 32. That he hath redeemed us unto God by his Blood Rev. 5. 9. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ hath put all things under his Feet Eph. 1. 22. I might collect a very great Number of other Places that speak to the very same purpose all which do evidently demonstrate that the true God is not Jesus Christ for if Jesus were sent of God and raised up from the Dead by God and sits now at God's right Hand c. then 't is plain that there is as great a Difference between the true God and him as there is between a Prince and him whom he is said to honour or imploy 'T would be strangely absurd for a Man to affirm that God can be sent of God that God can pray to God that God can ascend to God that God can sit at God's right Hand and that God shall deliver up the Kingdom to God that God may be all in all He that can believe this possible is fitted for the Reception of the most ridiculous and absurd Errors that were ever found in the World Of that Account which the Scriptures give of the Person of Christ As from what has been said before it appears very plainly what kind of Person Christ our Lord is not so 't will be likewise necessary to shew what the Scriptures do declare concerning him as to what he is Now if we consider well the general Scope and Tendency of those sacred Writings we shall perceive very plainly that Christ or the Messiah according to the Promises was really to be of the same Nature with them which he came to redeem that as by Man came Death so by Man might come also the Resurrection of the Dead 1 Cor. 15. 'T was by the Seed of the Woman that the Serpent's Head was bruised Gen. 3. 15. To Abraham the Promise was made that in him and in his Seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed Gen. 28. 14. Moses tells the Children of Israel that the Lord their God should raise up unto them a Prophet like unto him Deut. 8. 15. Of this Man's Seed namely David 's saith St. Paul hath God raised up unto Israel a Saviour Jesus Acts 13. 23. In the Fulness of time God sent forth his Son made of a Woman Gal. 4. 4. From all which Places 't is manifest that as to the personal Nature of Christ he is the same as were those humane Ancestors from whom he did lineally descend In all things he was like unto his Brethren except in being a Sinner Heb. 2. 17. Heb. 4. 15. And accordingly we find him almost every where mentioned by that plain Denomination and Term of A MAN Ye seek saith he himself to kill me A MAN who hath told you the Truth which I have heard of God Joh. 8. 40. After me cometh A MAN that is preferred before me Joh. 1. 30. Jesus of Nazareth A MAN approved of God by Wonders and Signs which God did by him Acts 13. 38. He hath appointed a Day in the which he will judg the World in Righteousness by THAT MAN whom he hath ordained Acts 17. 31. There is one God and one Mediator between God and Men THE MAN Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. But THIS MAN because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood Heb. 2. 7. But THIS MAN after he had once offered one Sacrifice for Sins for ever sat down at the right Hand of God Heb. 10. 12. I could name a Multitude of others but I think it is needless Now to me 't is strange that any should so much as imagine that the believing and asserting of Christ to be truly an humane Person should derogate from his true Honour and Dignity when the Gospel does so frequently assert him to be such whereas on the contrary 't is not said so much as once that he is God most high or that he is one of that sacred Three which do constitute or make up the true Godhead These Unscriptural Titles are derived only from the meer Opinions and Traditions of either deceived or deceiving Men whose Eyes the God of this World hath blinded so that they cannot see or discern the Truth The Primitive Confessions concerning Christ were Not that Jesus our Lord was God equal to the Father in all kind of Divine Perfections nor that he was God of the Substance of his Father as he was Man of the Substance of his Mother as some have taught in after-times All that those first Confessions do contain was this that he was the Christ the Son of God and the Saviour of the World This was the Faith of Martha She said unto him Yea Lord I believe that thou art the Christ the Son of God that should come into the World John 11. 27. This was St. Peter 's Faith Thou art Christ the Son of the living God Mat. 16. 16. This was the Eunuch's Faith I believe that Christ is the Son of God Acts 8. 37. This was the Faith of the Mariners Of a Truth thou art the Son of God Mat. 14. 33. And the Faith of Nicodemus was We know thou art a Teacher come from God for no Man can do these Miracles that thou dost except God be with him John 3. 2. St. Paul is also said to preach Christ in the Synagogues that he was the Son of God Acts 9. 20. He is said also to testify to the Jews not that Jesus was God but that Jesus was the Christ Acts 18. 5. We have seen and do testify saith St. John that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the World 1 Joh. 4. 14. Here 's no Trinity in Unity nor God-man nor Hypostatical Union so much as mentioned nor any other of those hard and cramping Names with which the Church of God has been since perplex'd The undoubted Faith on which the Salvation of all Christians does depend Is no other than this These things saith St. John are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that believing ye might