Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	grace_n	spirit_n	word_n	4,739	5	4.1204	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70039	Apokrypta apokalypta velata quædam revelata : some certain, hidden, or vailed spiritual verities revealed : upon occasion of various very prying and critical queries concerning God, the devil, and man, as to his body, soul, and spirit, Heaven, Hell, Judgement &c : propounded to George Fox, John Perrot, Samuel Fisher : and after that (with a complaint for want of, and stricter urgency for an answer) re-propounded to Edward Burroughs : by two persons, choosing to notifie themselves to us no other way then by these two unwonted (if not self-assumed) titles, viz. Livinus Theodorus, and Sabina Neriah : which truths (as there inspired by the spirit of God) are here expired in love to the souls of men / from ... Samuel Fisher.	Fisher, Samuel, 1605-1665.; Fox, George, 1624-1691.; J. P. (John Perrot), d. 1671?	1661 (1661)	Wing F1047; ESTC R31513	23,491	32

holy Prophets and Children and whatever they in all ages as moved by him so to do have declared him to be whether by word of mouth or Scripture And so whatever ye there read God is that God is really indeed and in truth viz. a Spirit Light Love that One Omnipotent All-sufficient Spiritual Substantial Living Everlasting Infinite Subsistence which hath his own being of himself and gives being life breath and All things unto All in whom we and all mankind who are his off-spring both live move and have our being Howbeit there is not in every man no not in all those that read of him there and can speak of him what they there read the true knowledge of him so or so to be for they onely truly know him to be this or that who witness him truly to be this or that to and within themselves those know him not who ere they are that prate this and that of him like Pyes and Parrets which may be taught verba nostra conari yet come not to find and feel him so to be as they say of him by feeling after him in his own Light by which he draws nigh to and is not far from every one of us by which in ommbus aliqualiter though not aequaliter in some measure though not the same measure he manifests something of himself in every Conscience and by which in and to such as love him and keep his Commandments given out in the same he manifests himself in such wise as he will not do to the World yea in such wise that they can experimentally say he is so or so by what they see concerning him and are made fully sensible of in themselves in such wise that they have the witness of it in themselves and can set to their seal That God is and that he is true good merciful faithful just righteous in taking vengeance that he is a Judge a Protector a Saviour a Redeemer and whatever else he is said to be even of a truth yea in such wise as to say with Job I know that my Redeemer liveth With Mary My Spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour With Paul We are saved by his Grace Christ liveth in me c. Whenas whoever thinks or sayes he knows God because he can say something of him at second hand in a form of words and the same truth perhaps which he reads written of God in their Scriptures who declare no more of him than what their own eyes ears and hands do see feel and handle of him as we do and they did who wrote of old that holy Scripture and yet know him not nigher hand in that which is of himself within their own hearts even that by which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely whatsoever is known of God at all but also whatever is to be known of him or knowable at all is manifested in him Rom. 1. 19. he deceives and mistakes himself and whate're he thinks he knows of God he knoweth nothing yet of him or of ought else as he ought to know therefore saith the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 21. In the Wisdom of God The world by Wisdom knew not God And 1 John 2. 4. He that saith he knoweth God and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him And to such wise sayers and knowers as these and such were the Scribes who were ever scraping in the Scriptures to find God and his life yet never knew him at any time nor saw his shape because they heard not his Voice nor heeded his Word in themselves Joh. 5 37. God saith Though ye say God lives yet as I live ye swear falsly And why falsly Was not that a truth that God lives Yes but not a truth truly testified unto by them any more then what is testified in foro hominum in mens Courts by such as being not eye-witnesses thereof have it onely by hear-say from others because they witnessed to it but in stoln words which they had and heard from such who knew him to live while themselves knew him not to live within themselves Whereas therefore ye Query What God really is in himself As God saith of himself I am that I am so say I Deus est id quod est God is what he is And if ye who by your asking of u● profess your selves to be yet ignorant of him and so to worship if yet ye worship him at all an unknown God as the wise Athenians did would know him in any measure as he is really in himself My Counsel to you is to stand still in his own Counsel namely his Light in your own Consciences that in that you may be led forth into his life and likeness even into the Image of his Son the Light of the world the righteous pure meek innocent gentle loving peaceable in offensive merciful compassionate tender patient Lamb of God that takes away the sin of it who is the express Image of the Father in that Light that manifests him and all things for whatever is manifest is manifested by the Light wait for his appearing in his own Spirit and Power to restore his own Image in your hearts that as he appeareth ye may appear with him in his glory which is fulness of Grace and Truth being transformed into his Image from glory to glory by the operation of his holy Spirit that as he appeareth ye may be like him and so see him as he is then shall ye know the Lord if ye thus follow on to know him whose goings forth are prepared as the morning to meet those that meet him in his Light by which he shineth into our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of his own glory in the face of Jesus Christ Finally In answer to the latter part of this your first Query I say That Light which God now is whom no such eye as you look after him with who ask counsel of man only concerning him and not of himself alone either hath seen or can see that same Light he ever was And in that Light in which he now is and dwells which is unapproachable by every evil-doer who hates the Light which is come into him to save him neither comes into it lest by it his deeds should be reproved and which he who doth truth comes to that his deeds may be made manifest to be wrought in God in that God was and did dwell from everlasting And as the outward Sun is not seen by any other natural Light save that which shines from it self in the outer world So God neither is nor can be seen by any other spiritual Light save that which shines from himself into the inner world of men's hearts And in that Light in which God doth now manifest himself in the same did he manifest himself if yet it be proper so to ask and so to answer as concerning him before Time was and before there was any Creature extant to take

ΑΠΟΚΡΥΠΤΑ ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΠΤΑ VELATA Quaedam REVELATA SOME Certain hidden or vailed Spiritual Verities Revealed Upon occasion of Various very prying and critical Queries Concerning God The Devil Man as to his Body Soul and Spirit Heaven Hell Judgement c. Propounded to George Fox John Perrott Samuel Fisher And after that with a complaint for want of and stricter urgency for an Answer re-propounded to Edward Burroughs By two persons choosing to notisie themselves to us no other way then by these two unwonted if not self-assumed Titles viz. Livinus Theodorus and Sabina Neriah Which Truths as there inspired by the Spirit of God are here exspired in love to the souls of men From out of a Hole in the Gate-House at Westminster through an Earthen Vessel there Imprisoned for the Testimony of Jesus known among men by the Name of SAMUEL FISHER LONDON Printed for Robert Wilson 1661. THese Returns to the Letter and Replies to the Queries here ensuing were in no wise written at first with any purpose of publishing them so generally as at the Press But with particular respect to the satisfaction of those two private Querists onely viz. L. T. S. N. who have on their part so privily all along managed the matter of their enquiry that we can truly say notwithstanding our express desires to them of such a thing we cannot learn to this very day by any hint to us as from themselves distinctly either Who or What or Whence or Where they are their Letters bearing no date from any Sign or Place whereby we might be put into a capacity to come unto any outward Cognizance of or Acquaintance with them And themselves not willing for ought I see to be known to us either by their faces or by the places of their abode but onely by these two I will not say Hypocritical but Aenigmatical names of Livinus Theodorus Sabina Neriah But so it was that they never sending at all for our Answer to their Queries to that person nominated by themselves with whom it was left for them at their own request but about five or six weeks after it was made ready for them propounding their Queries all over again verbatim to E. B. together with not onely expressions of greater earnestness and sharper eagerness after an Answer but also a Letter of complaint against us three G. F. J. P. S. F. as either nilling or neglecting and not at all regarding to gratific our friends as they style themselves in a matter of so grand importance and lastly they not yet coming nor so much as sending to me for it though in a Letter left for them and carried to them by their Messenger it was long since signified to them that it lies by me for them if they would either call themselves or send for it to me by any that might signifie to me where any of us as occasion is may speak with either of them their Messenger also intimating as I hear that their expectation and desire now is of seeing something Printed as in Answer to them I held it meet in no less love to their souls who e're they are and even to the souls of all men then to my own to commit and commend this long since written Reply in Print to their or any other persons whether private or publick perusal in such manner and form as hereafter follows S. F. Some certain hidden or vailed spiritual Verities revealed c. FRIENDS YOU who tam masculiné quam foemininé and that as may well seem at least to some mendaciter fictitiè potius quàm veraciter sincerè subscribe your selves respectively by these two more Latine Greek and Hebrew then Engl●sh Names which are significative of a nature and state which your selves are short of of Livinus Theodorus and Sabina Neriah I have seen your thirteen Queries propounded to G. F. J. P. and my self or either of us together with your seeming sympathetical Preface to them wherein after an acknowledgement of our Ministry as such whereby people may be brought into a posture or frame of spirit in which they may be capable to receive the Mystery of Godliness which ye believe also by the Light within us to be in a great measure elucidated unto us you express your selves in some other particulars in such wise as gives me occasion by way of Preface to my Answer to premise something as to them You intimate of the things exhibited to us in your Questions that they are matters of such weight that the consideration thereof hath oft much reflected upon your spirits so that you have gone sometimes to our Assemblies in hopes to hear Discourses of such like as being of great concernment and very pertinent for every one to know but though ye have heard us promising felicity and consolation in the Creatures obedience and threatning judgement and misery in its disobedience yet we never explicated so as to your satisfaction when where and in what manner they must of necessity participate of the one or the other Hereupon and for other reasons by you alledged viz. the profitableness of writing above verbal Discourses as in which things discussed are more subject to be obliviated wrested perverted and the intellect more obnubilated then in the other which all are reasons of little cogency if there were no other to enforce me to answer the curiosity of your itching minds in this case sith I well know that in the Power and Spirit of God truth may be unfolded both much more and to many more also that are of open and honest hearts in one hour by word of mouth then it can by the writing of many days to men who have pruritum cognoscendi more desire meerly to know then mind to do what good is already known I say as you say also that causis superius you present to us the following Queries in writing in order to receiving a satisfactory Answer in the same way of writing hoping it will not be offensive sed potius cum delectatione accepta but acceptum ye should have said had ye heeded what ye wrote promising in case ye do receive our Answer in plain honest down-right words ye will be obliged not onely to acknowledge your selves to be our friends but us also to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and be ready to acknowledge the truth of our Principles before or to any that you shall hear oppose us Now truly Friends here are not a few very fair pretences and seeming shews of simplicity but yet latet anguis in herbà there is an eye that is not evil neither but pure and single which sees more of the Serpent then of the Saint in all this and in the Queries that follow after it and more of that subtilty of the Enemy then of that simplicity that is in Christ whose meat and drink it was to do the wil made known whilst the other feeds no higher then on that dust of desiring to know and discourse of

those many truths which he never minds nor means that they shall have so much influence upon his heart or dominion over him in his life as to order him rightly according thereunto in either the one or the other Whereupon we could very well excuse our selves as to the Lord if we should answer you no otherwise then by answering you not a word And for my own part though it is not at all offensive to me if it never prove so to your selves yet as delightful as ye take it to be to us to be presented with your Queries wherein ye shew your own delight to be in minding things too high for you or for any but such whose dwelling hath been long in the deep before ye are truly come to be well acquainted with the first Principles of the Oracles of God within your selves I take as little delight in as I do offence at your own or any ones presentments of this kind it being altogether as endless as it 's easeless and well-nigh as useless for us as it 's utterly reasonless for you or any to engage us to it or expect it from us that we who howbeit ye who come but sometimes to our Meetings as ye say have seldom heard us have so abundantly opened the truth in those very points concerning God and man as to his Body Soul and Spirit Heaven Hell the holy City the Day of the Lord and the Eternal Judgement and so long directed people to that true Light which onely gives the knowledge of all these very things ye enquire after and this not onely by our verbal discourses but also in our Books which are extant in all places to the publike view of all persons should condescend to exercise our selves stil in writing the same o're and o're again to gratifie every two or three single persons in private in order to the feeding of every airy fancy which would fain furnish it self for windy discourse thereof with notions and comprehensions of those weighty Truths of God which it's fitter for wise men to wait in silence on the Lord for the feeling the Truth of within themselves in that Light out of which they can never be known then in a flood of words to stand questioning and replying one to another about them and which though it 's very pertinent and also necessary yet it 's not more pertinent nor necessary for every one to know then it 's necessary for every one that would know them in truth to know them by the manifestation of the Spirit of Truth which leads into all Truth within himself there being no Dispensation nor Administration either below or beyond that of the Spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty that gives that Wisdom and Understanding whereby onely they and all soul saving Truths can be discerned So that it may be truly said of Christ the true Light who in measure enlightneth every man as in order to the knowledge of God a man's self and all other matters y● query about Si Christum nescis nihil est si catera noscis Si Christum noscis nihil est si ●aetera nescis Ye have Moses and the Prophets within viz. this written spoken manifested in you Quod tibi ne vis fieri alteri ne feceris and Retro Whatever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them This saith Christ is the Law or Moses and the Prophets but if ye will not be admonished nor perswaded by Moses and the Prophets neither will ye be perswaded by such of us who were once dead in sin with you but are now risen to life by the power of God which is his Light and in the same sent to speak unto you from the dead And as for your owning or disowning of us to any such as before you shall oppose us it 's little to us if ye own us to be of the truth unless ye come together with us into union with it for we know whether ye confess to or deny us that we are of God that the World lieth in that wickedness that cuts off from him and that we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as hold forth that infallible everlasting Truth of God which hath very amply revealed to us of its secrets which Truth needs no man at all to plead for it for it pleads both for it self and for its Children much less such as seem to side with it without in words yet indeed resist the power of it in themselves If ye be so wise as to submit to the teachings of it ye shall be wise to yourselves to the salvation of your souls but if you sleight or scorn it so as to seek or seem to be above it ye alone must bear it in the judgement of it To conclude though as one of this worlds fools may ask much more then many a wise man in Christ may think fit to answer to so one that is a fool for Christ may answer much more truth then many of the wise men of this world may think fit to acknowledge to be satisfactory yet that ye may not think I say that ye may not think we forbear to Reply upon the account of any such difficulty or depth in your Questions as transcends the capacity of those ye dealwith whom ye deem for all your owning them as above others not a little inferior to your selves and that like the sluggard who is wiser in his own eyes then seven men that can render a reason ye may not grow more prudent then pudent as many are apt to do in their own conceits so as to judge them altogether unanswerable if your Questions lye unanswered altogether in at least some more hopes of your conviction and conversion by us then fear of your contradiction or confutation of us I return to your following Queries as hereafter follows Query 1. WHat is God really in himself without any definition And in what did he dwell and manifest himself before the foundation of the Heavens and the Earth was laid Answer 1. God as he is really in himself is beyond all definition of ours at all being not determined to his Hic Hunc as all created beings are being as to time and place nec definitivé nec circumscriptivé in either but if speaking by way of such description as those have made of him who have seen and known him may de facto as de jure it ought to do amount to the satisfaction of your prying minds which would fain be intruding into things which ye have not seen I answer God whatever more he is that 's nothing to us quae supra nos nihil ad nos the secret things of himself are onely to himself whose mind in all things absolutely who hath known But things reveal'd onely to us to speak of and to our Children is really in himself whatever he hath at any time in and by his Son revealed himself to be in and to his

if so how and where I answer It hath a being distinct not onely from the body when deceased but from the soul also when expired which spirit is quick powerful and quickning and searching the soul in its secrets and piercing so unto the marrow and reins that all things are naked and bare before it and nothing hid from its sight Whereupon it is said of this spirit of a man Prov. 20. 27. It is the Candle of the Lord searching into the inmost parts of the belly This is that Candle whereby the Lord doth search Jerusalem it self this is that spirit of a man of which it 's said Who knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man that is in him as none knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God and he to whom the Spirit of God reveals them which is onely to the spiritual man who by his union with that Light of God in himself which flowes from the Life comes to be God's own Image and glory which all his begotten ones do bear whose glory is seen to be that of the Son of God which is fulness of grace and truth And howbeit the body and soul both may perish as they seperate from this spirit yet it lives and abides for ever together with all that doth the Will of God made manifest in it This is that in respect of which man regenerated by it is man indeed such a one as in reference to whom man in the fall is but the beast of the field as much falling short in the highest of his meer Animals of the spiritual man as the outward beast of the field doth of him who is meerly Animal for man at his best estate abstract from this even every man is altogether vanity and a lye yea man in honor separated from that understanding which comes from this is but as the beasts that perish And men who seperate themselves from it in their sensual or Animal understanding so as not to have the Spirit must for all their airy notions in the sensual part once know themselves to be but beasts or men by the halves this is that spirit of a man which is able to sustain and bear all his infirmities but if it be wounded by man's sin who can bear it Prov. 18. 14. This is that spirit of man that goeth upwards and draweth the soul upwards toward God from whom it is breathed into man when the spirit of the beast or bruitish man goeth downward to the earth from whence it came and draws downwards even to the Chambers of death and the depths of Hell This is that of which while ye ask how and where it hath a being if so at all distinct from the body I answer in the words of Wisdom it self Eccles 12. That at the dissolution of the compositum or whole man which consists of the Three aforesaid each from the other then the body returns to the dust from whence it came and the said spirit returns up to God that gave it And that Soul together with it that hath stood in the counsel of it while that soul which the body dyes from while they both lived together in sin dyes both from it and from God that gave it for ever and is left naked and divested both of its own body and its own spirit also and lyes in separation not onely from both these but also from God and his good spirit tormented among all evil spirits for ever Query 9. What and where is that Heaven in which it 's said God doth dwell Is it above the Firmament or must a Creature wait to know it manifest in him and not otherwise Ans Heaven is the highest place in either outward and local or inward and spiritual scituation and therefore it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Heaven in which its said God dwells is neither onely above the Firmament nor onely under the Firmament but both above it and below it and even every where where he manifests himself in his love and mercy goodness grace and glory And as he dwells in no place so as to be any where circumscriptively included so in every place he is so as to be no where at all excluded So that if ye ask Whether it is above the Firmament onely and not otherwise I say No for it is also under the Firmament or else the Son of Man could not have been truly said to be in Heaven as he is John 3. in that self-same juncture of time wherein he was standing bodily and speaking to Nicodemus here on earth neither could the Beast be said as he is Rev. 13. to blaspheme the Saints that dwell in Heaven if they were not in Heaven whilst here on earth For even He and His Worshippers superstitiously adore whatever they deem to be above the Skies and blaspheme it not Likewise the Apostles dwelling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in Heaven Phil. 3. whilst they were bodily here on earth Therefore Heaven is as well under as above the Firmament yea it is in very deed in his peoples hearts in every humble broken and contrite spirit And whereas ye ask Whether a Creature must wait to know it in himself onely and not otherwise I say Not so neither for Heaven shall be manifest and known not onely inwardly in their hearts who wait for it but outwardly also to such as wait not for it within themselves as Lazarus Bosome was to the rich man's sight afar off so far onely as shall tend to the aggravation of their anguish who shall see themselves shut out everlastingly from sharing in it To conclude the Heaven which is God's Throne God's House God's Tabernacle and the place of his Rest where no Lyon nor any Ravenous Beast shall be where no Lyar nor unclean one that works abomination hath any place where none of the proud prying vulturous eyes can pierce far enough to discern the glory of it where no haughty fowles of the air that are lifted up with the windy wings of their own lofty notions no high-climbing Capernaites nor Thieves and Robbers that are flying about aloft above the Door which is the Light within can ever sore high enough to enter is not onely that high place locally scituated above the Skies but that high and holy place also of a low and humble heart and a broken and contrite spirit that trembles at his Word there he delights to manifest himself who is the high and lofty One who inhabiteth Eternity and to make his abode even in them who are meek and lowly who dwell on high with him in the Hill which he hath chosen whose Hill is the highest above all the Hills whose Jerusalem is his Throne when all the Earth besides it that are foes to him and it must be as the footstool and as no more then ashes under the soles of their feet the Mountain of whose House is now establishing on the top of the Mountains and exalting it self above all the