Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	jesus_n	lord_n	spirit_n	7,577	5	4.8812	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87711	Ophthalmos aplois or the single eye, entituled the vision of God wherein is infolded the mistery of divine presence, so to be in one place finitely in apperance, as yet in every place no lesse present, and whilst Hee is here, Hee is universally every where infinitely himselfe. Penned by that learned Dr. Cusanus, and published for the good of the saints. By Giles Randall.; De visione Dei. English.	Nicholas, of Cusa, Cardinal, 1401-1464.; Randall, Giles.	1646 (1646)	Wing K395; Thomason E1212_1; ESTC R208815	54,077	203

testimoney of thy blood and shewed by bodily death that truth is the life of the reasonable spirit the seed grew in the good ground and brought forth good fruit thou shewest me O Lord how my soule is the breath of life in regard of my body into which it breatheth and infloweth life And it is not in regard of thee O God but as it were a power or possibility of life And because thou canst not but grant the things that are asked if they be asked with a most attentive faith thou inflowest or inspirest me that there is in a Child a soule which hath a vegetative power and force in act for the Childe groweth It hath likewise a sencitive power in act for the Childe feeleth it hath likewise an imaginative power but not yet act it hath likewise a discursive power whose act is yet more distant And it hath an intellectuall virtue but in a power yet more remote further off so we finde by experience that one and the same soule is first in act inregard of the inferior powers and afterwards in regard of the superior that first he is an animall man before a spirituall man So likewise we know by proofe that there is a certaine numerall virtue in the Bowells of the earth which may also be called a spirit and that it is first in power or possibility to be made a minera of stone and another to bee made a minera of Salt and another of Mettall and that there are divers such spirits according to the diversity of Sones Salts and Mettalls but yet that there is one spirit of the Minera of Gold which by the influence of the Sun or of the Heaven is continually more and more purified and at length fixed into such Gold as is not by any Element to be corrupted or distroyed and that in it there shines exceeding much of the incorruptible light of heaven for it is very like the corporall light of the Sun And the like wee finde also of the vegitable and sensitive spirit for the sensitive spirit in a man doth much conforme it selfe unto the moving and influentiall virtue of Heaven and doth successively take increase under the influence of Heaven untill it be put in perfect act And it is brought out of the power or possibility of the body and therefore the perfection of it ceaseth as soone as the perfection of the body faileth Then is there an intellectuall spirit which in the act of its perfection depends not of the body but is united unto it by meanes of the sensitive virtue This spirit because it dependeth not of the body is not subject to the influence of the heaven by bodies neither depends it of the sensitive spirit and so not of the moving power of Heaven but as the movers of the heavenly Orbs are subject to the first mover so likewise this mover which is the understanding but because it is united to the bodie by the meane of the sensitive power therefore it is not perfected without the sences for all that comes unto it from the sensible world comes unto it by meanes of the sences And therefore there can bee nothing in the understanding which hath not first bin in the sence And by how much the sense is purer and perfecter and the imagination clearer and the discourse bitter by so much the understanding in its intellectuall operations is lesse hindered and more perspicatious Now the understanding is fed by the word of life under whose ifluence it is placed as the movers of the Orbs but differently as also the spirits that are subject to the influences of Heaven are differently perfected And it is not perfected but accedentally by the sensible spirit as the Image doth not perfect although it excite to enquire the truth of the samplar or patterne as the Image of the Crucified doth not inflow devotion but stirsup the memory that devotion may be inflowed and because the intellectuall spirit is not necessitated by the influence of Heaven but is wholy free therefore except it do by faith subject it selfe unto the influence of the word of God it is not perfected as a Schollar that is free and in his owne power unlesse he subject himselfe unto the word of his Master by beleeveing hee is not perfected for hee must trust and heare his Master And the understanding is perfected by the word of God and growes and is made every day more capable and apt and more like to the word And this perfection which thus comes from the word from whence it had its being is not a corruptible perfection but a perfection deiforme or formed by God as the perfection of Gold is not corruptible but of the forme of heaven And every understanding must by faith subject it selfe to the word of God and most attentively harken to that internall teaching of the highest Mr. and by hearing what the Lord saith in it It shall bee perfected Wherefore thou O Jesus the only Master hath preached that faith is necessary for every one that comes to the fountaine of life and hast shewne that according to the degree of faith the influence of the divine power is present O Saviour Christ two things only hast thou taught Faith and Love By faith the understanding comes to the word and by love it is united to it By how much more it comes unto it by so much more it is increased in power and by how much more it loveth by so much more it is fixed to the light thereof and the word of God is within it the understanding and it needs not seeke for it without it selfe for hee shall finde it within and by faith hee shall approach unto it And that hee may come neerer hee shall obtaine by prayers for the word will increase faith by the Communication of its light I give thee thanks O Jesus because by thy light I am come thus farre for in thy light I see the light of my life how thou the word inflowest life to all that beleeve and perfectest all that love thee What other Doctrine was ever so short and effectuall as thine O good Jesus thou perswadest nothing but to beleeve and thou commandest nothing but to love What is more easie then to beleeve God what more sweet than to love him How sweet is thy Yok and how light is thy burthen O ray Mr. thou promisest to them that keepe this Doctrine whatsoever can be desired for thou requirest nothing that is hard to him that beleeves nothing denied to him that loves Such are the promises thou makest to thy Disciples and they are most true because thou art truth which canst promise nothing but true things nay thou promisest nothing but thy selfe who art the perfection of every thing that may be perfected To thee bee praise to thee be Glory to thee be thanksgiving through all ages Amen How Iesus is the consumation CHAP. 25. YEt what may that be O Lord that thou sendest into the

spirit of that man whom thou perfectest Is it not thy good spirit which is wholly in Act the vertue and power of all vertues and the perfection of all perfect things because it is hee that worketh all things For as the power of the Sunne descending into the vegitable spirit moves it that it may be perfected and so by the meanes of a good Tree there is made good fruit but a most acceptable and naturall decoction of a heavenly heate So thy spirit O God comes into the intellectual spirit of Good men and by the heat of divine love concocts the virtuall power that it may be perfected and made most acceptable fruit unto it We finde by experience that thy simple spirit infinite in virtue is many wayes received for it is otherwise received in one where it maks a prophetick spirit otherwise in another where it makes a cunning and skilfull interpretor and otherwise in another where it teacheth knowledge and otherwise in other men For there are divers gifts thereof and they are the perfections of the intellectuall spirit as the same heat of the sume in divers Trees perfecteth divers fruits I see O Lord that thy spirit is not wanting to any spirit because it is the spirit of spirits and the motion of motions and it filleth all the world but it disposeth all things which have not the intellectual spirit by that in tellectuall nature which moves the Heaven and by the motion thereof all things that are under it only the disposition and dispensation in the intellectuall nature it hath reserved unto it selfe a Love For it hath espoused to it selfe this nature in which it hath chosen to rest as in a Mantion house and in the Haven of truth for no where els can this truth be received in it selfe but in the intellectuall nature Thou O Lord which workest all things for thy selfe hast created this whole world for the intellectuall nature As a Painter which tempreth divers Colours that at length hee may paint himselfe to the end hee may have his owne Image that his Art may therein rest and take delight that so being himselfe one and unmultipliable at the least hee may be multiplyed after the best manner possible in the neerest similitude And Hee makes many figures because the similitude of his infinit virtue power cannot bee after a more perfect manner explicated but in many things and all intellectuall spirits are to every spirit opportune For if they were not innumerable thou being an infinite God couldst not be known after the best manner for every intellectuall spirit seeth some thing in the my God which if it were not revealed unto others they should not approach unto thee their God after the best manner possible Therefore the spirit being full of love reveale their secrets one to another and by this meanes the knowledge of the beloved is increased and the desire unto it and the sweernesse of joy is inflamed Neither yet O Lord God hast thou made the accomplishment of thy work without Jesus thy Sonne whom thou anoyntedst above his fellowes who is therefore Christ In whose understanding rests the perfection of every creatable nature for it is the last and perfectest unmultipliable likenesse of God and there can bee no one such supreame one For all other intellctuall spirits are by the mediation of that spirit similitudes and by how much more perfect so much more like unto it And they all rest in that spirit as in the last of perfection of the Image of God of which Image they have attained some similitude and degree of perfection I have therefore by thy guift O God all this visible world and all the scripture and all administring spirits to helpe me profit in the knowledge of thee all things excite mee to be turned to thee All Scriptures labour for nothing but to shew thee all intellectuall spirits have no other exercise but to seeke thee and reveale what they have found of thee Above all things thou hast given me Jesus for a Master the way of life and the truth that so there might bee nothing at all wanting unto mee Thou comfortest me by thy holy spirit by it thou inspirest the choise of life holy desires Thou asurest mee by a foretaste of the sweetnesse of that glorious life to love thee the infinite good Thou ravishest mee that I am above my selfe and do before hand see that place of glory to which thou invitest mee Thou shewest mee many delicate and savorie dishes that draw mee by their most excellent odour thou sufferest mee to see the treasure of riches life joy beauty Thou discoverest the fountaine from whence flowes every desireable thing as wel in nature as in art Thou keepest nothing secret thou hidest not the vaine of love nor peace nor rest Thou offerst all things to me most miserable man whom thou hast created of nothing Why do I therefore stay why doe I not runne after my Christ in the odour of this oyntments Why do I not enter into the joy of my Master What holdeth me if ignorance of thee O Lord and the vaine delights of this sencible world have withholden me it shall now hold me no longer for I will O Lord because thou givest mee power to will leave the things of this world because the world will leave mee I make hast to the end I have almost finished my course I will prevent the world in bidding it farewell because I labour towards the Crowne draw mee O Lord for no man can come to thee except he bee drawne by thee that being drawne by thee I may be freed from this world and joyne to thee the absolute God in the eternity of a glorious life Amen

were it not most highly or absolutely united unto thee O good Jesus I see in thee mans nature to be most highly joyned to God the Father by the highest union even a greater then by which it is joyned to God the sonne the absolute Mediator Therefore humane filiation because thou art the son of man is in thee Jesus most highly united to the divine filiation that thou art worthily and truly called the Son of God and man for in thee nothing mediates betweene the Son of man and the Son of God In the absolute filiation which is the Son of God is complicated all filiation whereunto thy humane filiation O Jesus is superamely united therefore thy humane filiation subsists in thy divine not only complicitly but as the attracted in the attracting and the united in the uniting and the substantiated in the substantiating Therefore in thee O Jesus there is no possible separation of the Son of man from the Son of God for separability is where the union might be greater but where the union cannot be greater nothing can mediate separation therefore can have no place where nothing can mediate betweene the things united and where the united subsists not in the uniting the union is not the highest for there is a greater union where the united subsists in the uniting then where the united subsists a part for separation is the greatest remotenesse from union So I see in thee my Iesus how humane fiiation by which thou art the son of man subsists in the divine filiation by which thou art the Sonne of God as in the greatest union the united with the uniting To thee O God be glory for ever How Jesus is understood the complying of the divine and humane nature CHAP 20. VEry clearely dost thou shew unto me O never failing light that that greatest union whereby mans nature in thee Iesus is united unto the divine nature is not by any means like to an infinite union for the union by which thou O God the Father art united unto God thy son is God the holy Ghost and therefore an infinite union for it reacheth unto absolute essentiall Identitie but it is not so where the humane nature is united to the divine for the humane nature cannot passe into an essentiall union which the divine as that which is finite canot be infinitly united to that which infinite for then it would passe into the Identitie of the infinite and so it would cease to be finite when the infinite were verified of it Wherefore this union by which the humane nature is united unto the divine nature is nothing else but an attraction of the humane nature to the Divine in the highest degree so that the humane nature whilst such cannot be attracted any higher It is therefore the greatest union of his humane nature as humane to the divine because there can be no greater but it is simply the greatest not infinite as the divine union I see therefore by the benignity of thy grace in thee Iesus the son of man the son of God and in the son of God I see the Father for in thee the sunne of man I see the Son of God because thou art so the son of man that thou art also the son of God and in the finite attracted nature I see the infinite attracting nature I see in the absolute Son the absolute father for the Son as Son cannot bee seene unlesse the father be seene I see in thee Iesus a divine filiation or sonneship which is the truth of all filiation and likewise a most high human filiation which is the neerest image of absolute filiation As therefore the Image betweene which and the Patterne or samplar there cannot mediate a perfect image dost most neerely subsist in the truth of that whose Image it is so do I see thy humane nature subsisting in the divine nature Therefore I see all things in thy humane nature which I see in thy divine But I see them after an humane manner in thy humane nature which are the divine truth it selfe in the divine nature Those things which I see in thee after a humane manner O Jesus are the similitude of the divine nature but a similitude is without a meane joyned to the Patterne or samplar so that a more like can neither be nor be imagined in the humane or reasonable nature I see are sonable humane spirit most strictly united to the divine spirit which is absolute reason and so the humane understanding to the divine understanding and all things in thy understanding O Jesus for thou O Iesus as God understandest all things as God and this understanding is to bee all things Thou understandest all things as man and this understanding is to be the similitude of all things for a thing is not understood by a man but in a similitude a stone is not in the understanding of a man as its proper cause or reason but as in its species or similitude In thee therefore O Iesus the humane understanding is united to the divine as the most perfect image to the truth of the Pattern As if then I should consider the Ideall forme of an Arke in the minde of the Artificer and the species of an Arke made most perfectly and according to the Idea by the Master himselfe how then the Ideall forme is the truth of the species and united unto it as the truth unto the image in one Master So in thee O Iesus the Mr. of Masters I see the absolute Idea of all things and the similitudinarie species of the same most highly united I see thee O good Iesus within the Wall of Paradice because thy understanding is both the Truth and the Image and thou art both God and a Creature infinity and finite And it is not possible thou shouldest be seene on this side the Wall for thou art the coup●ing of the divine creating nature with the humane created nature And I see this difference betweene thy humane understanding and any other mans that no one man knoweth all things which may be knowne by man because no mans understanding is so joyned to the samplar of all things as the similitude to the truth but that it might be more neerely joyned and set more in act and therefore the understandeth not so many things but that he might understand more by his accesse unto the samplar of things from whence every thing that is an act hath actually But thy understanding doth actually understand all things that are intelligible by man because in thee humane nature is most perfect and most joyned to its samplar or Pattern for which union thy humane understanding exceeds every created undarstanding in the perfection of understanding Therefore all reasonable spirits are far beneath thee of all whom thou O Iesu art the Master and the light and thou art the perfection and fulnesse of all things and by thee as by the Mediator they came unto the absolute truth for thou art both the way

nature pas into another nature as when the Image is united to its truth for it cannot then be said to bee altered but rather to goe backe from its alterity because it is united unto its proper truth which is inalterability it selfe Nor canst thou O sweet Jesu be said to be a middle nature betweene divine and humane when as betweene them there cannot be any middle nature partaking of both for the divine nature is not partakeable being wholly absolutely most simple Nor couldst thou then O blessed Iesus be either God or man But I see thee O Lord Iesus one supposition above all understanding because thou art one Christ after the same manner that I see thy one human soule in which as in the soule of any man I see there was a corruptible sensible nature which did subsist in an incorruptible intellectuall nature Nor yet was that soule compounded of corruptible and in corruptible neither did the sensible soule coinside with the intellectuall but I see an intellectuall soule to be united to the body by a sensible power quickning the body And if the intellectuall soule should cease to Quicken and Enlighten the Body though it were not separated from the body yet would that man be dead because his life would cease notwithstanding the body were not separated from life being the understanding is the life thereof As when a man intellectually labours and seeks by the meanes of his sight to discerne one that is comming and yet being carried away with other considerations his attention ceaseth about that inquirie though his eyes be still fastened upon it his eye is not separated from the Soule though it bee separated from the discretive or discerning attention of the Soule But if that rapture should not only cease from the discretive quickning but also from the sensitive quickening that eye were dead because it were not quickened Yet for all that it were not separated from the intellective forme which is the form giving being As a dry hand is united to the forme which unites the whole body There are sound men as Saint Augustine relates which can retract or draw back the vivifying spirit and so they appeare dead and feele nothing supposing it to be so In this close the intellectuall nature would remaine united to the body which body would not be under any other forme than it was before nay it would have the same forme and remaine the same body neither would the quickening force cease to be but would remaine in union with the intellectuall nature although actually it did not extend it selfe into the body I see that man truly dead because hee wants the vivifying life for death is the want of the quickner and yet that body would not be dead separated from the life which is the Soule thereof After the same manner most mercifull Iesus I do behold absolute life which is God inseparably united to the humane understanding and by it into the body for that union is such a one that a greater cannot be and a separable union is much inferior to such a union as cannot be greater Therefore it was never true nor ever shall be that thy divine nature was separated from thy humane consequently neither from the soule nor the body which are those things without which humane nature cannot be although it bee most true that thy Soule ceased to quicken thy body and that thou didst truly suffer death and yet wast never separated from the truth of life If that Priest whom Saint Augustine mentions had whatsoever power it were to take vivification out of his body by drawing it up unto the soule as if a candle that enlighteneth a Chamber were alive and should draw up those beames by which it enlightens the Chamber into the Center of its light and its drawing up were nothing but a ceasing to inflame what marvell is it if thou Iesus being the most free and living light hast power to lay downe and to take up thy quickinnig soule and when thou wouldest take it up thou sufferedest death and when thou wouldst resume it by thine owne thou didst rise againe Now an intellectuall nature is called a humane soule when it quickens or animates a body And the soule is said to be taken away when … ane understanding ceaseth to quicken for when the understanding ceaseth from the Office of quickening and in this respect separateth it selfe from the body it is not therefore simply separated These things thou inspirest o Iesus that thou mightest shew thy selfe to most unworthy mee as far as I am capable and that I may in thee contemplate that mortall humane nature hath put on immortality that all men of the same humane nature may in thee attaine resurrection and divine life What then can bee sweeter what more pleasant then to know this that in thee O Iesu we finde all things that are in our nature which only canst do all things and givest most liberally and up bradest no man O inexpresible mercy and pity thou God which art goodnesse it selfe couldst 〈◊〉 satisfie thy infinite clemency and bounty except thou gavest us thy selfe Neither could this be don more conveniently for us that are the receivers then that thou shouldest assume our nature because we could not approach unto thine so thou camest to us and art named Iesus the Saviour blessed for evermore How Iesus is the word of life CHAP. 24. THy gift thy best and greatest guift inables me to contemplat thee my Jesus preaching the words of life and bountefully sowing the Divine seeds in the hearts of the hearers And I see them go away which receved not the things of the spirit But I see thy Disciples abiding it which began to tast the sweetnesse of that Doctrine which quickneth the soule for all whom that first and chiefest of all the Appostls Peter confest that thou Iesus hadst the word of life and wondered that they which seeke life would go from thee Paul heard from thee Iesus in a rapture the words of life and then neither sword nor famine of body separate him from thee No man could ever forake thee that had tasted the words of life who can separate a Beare from Hony after hee hath once tasted the sweetnesse of it How great is the sweetnesse of truth how most delectable a life doth it give above all bodily sweetnesse for it is absolute sweetnesse from whence floweth all that by any tast is desired What is stronger than love by which every lovely thing hath to bee loved If the knot or Bond of contracted love be sometimes so great that the feare of death cannot breake it what a knot is there of that love rasted from whence is all love I wonder not that all cruelty of paines was accounted nothing by other of thy Souldiers of Jesus to whom thou gavest thy selfe the life to be tasted aforehand O Jesus my love thou hast sowed the seed of life in the field of beleevers and watered it with the