Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	john_n	speak_v	spirit_n	4,082	5	5.6200	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29125	A compendious answer to a book called A brief survay of the judgement of Mr. John Goodvvin, and the Church of God walking with him, touching their reasons of dissenting from many of their brethren, in these imprtant heads of doctrine; 1. Election and reprobation. 2. The death of Christ. 3. The grace of God in and about conversion. 4. The liberty or power of the will, or of the creature man. 5. The perseverance of the saints. VVherein the absurdities of all their dissenting doctrines are clearly exhibited, by a loving friend to the truth it self, Ellis Bradshaw.	Bradshaw, Ellis.	1652 (1652)	Wing B4139A; ESTC R212996	33,087	46

ordained you c. verse 16. saith our blessed Savior to whom God hath given power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as God had given him John 17.2 Some are of the world and therefore it is that they speak of the world and the world heareth them But some are of God and he that knoweth God heareth them but he that is not of God heareth them not and thereby may be known the spirit of truth and the spirit of error see 1 Jo. 4.5 6. And again He that is of God heareth Gods words saith Christ ye therfore hear them not because ye are not of God John 8.47 So that it is clear some are of God before they hear God words and do therfore hear them because they are of God and not of the world For the truth is they are so of God by generation as that God is the chief cause of their very separation or propagation from the very loines of their natural parents And this is properly their actual election which is accomplished in time according to his eternal purpose or counsel of his will to elect in Christ having in his immutable counsel determined with himself what he would effect and bring to pass in time for he worketh all things in time according to his eternal purpose or counsel of his will before there was time But without all question such who are thus separated by the hand of God through means of generation and so are properly selected out of the world as peculiarly his own these you cannot chuse but must needs acknowledge their election is sure in the sight of God so as they cannot possibly perish And again so many as God had called justified and sanctified them you must needs acknowledge shall be glorified and so cannot possibly perish else you deny these plain expressions of the Holy Ghost before cited and go about also as hath been said to put even the best and holiest men into doubts and fears whereas you should labour to edifie in the faith and not to destroy their faith So that I cannot imagine what you should possibly mean or intend in this doctrine unless you so judge as that the Decree of God or counsel of his will before the world began was not so capacious and comprehensious as to determine before hand what should certainly become of every particular person that should be begotten from the beginning to the end But only determined with himself concerning the species or certain kinds of men in the gross or general and no further at all as so you seem to express your self saying There is no Election or Decree of Election of particular persons as such but only of an intire species of men from Eternity In which assertion you plainly deny the omnisciency of God and render him to us altogether blind in respect of particulars till they be existent and so you also exclude the Election of Christ himself as hath been said and every other particular of the Elect of God out of his eternal purpose as though he had not known as well the particulars as the gross and generall of all his works from the beginning to the end Whereas the text is clear that he worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will Ephes 1.11 And it is also clear that his understanding is Infinite see Psal 147.5 So that he cannot possibly be ignorant any more of the particulars than of the intire species or sorts of people for if he were ignorant of any thing his understanding were not infinite And if he did any thing at all in time that he had not purposed in himself in the counsel of his will before-time Then he could not be said to work all things according to his own purpose or the counsel of his will For if any particular work should be effected by him which he did not purpose in the Counsel of his will that particular work could not properly be said to be effected according to the counsel of his will nor as he had purposed in himself if he did not purpose that very particular work Obj. But you it may be will object That what is decreed to be done to or concerning all such of the same kind or species is also decreed to be done to every particular of such species or kinds of poople Answ I answer true But upon what ground can you possibly exclude out of the prescience or foreknowledge of God the foresight and knowledge of every particular work that he accomplisheth in time How can you prove that he did not purpose that very particular work Can you possibly imagine that he did not foresee from the very beginning all past present and future occurrences that have been are or shall be effected to the very end How dare you limit the Holy One of Israel and so diminish his Attributes Whereas you well know His understanding is infinite Conseq Therefore he is not ignorant of any occurrences from the beginning to the end And though many things seem unpossible unto men yet with God all things are possible saith our blessed Saviour Conseq Therefore it is possible that he should foresee all and every particular effect and occurrences from the beginning to the end this you cannot deny it were absurd if you should And you know likewise that The very hairs of our heads are numbred and that a sparrow falleth not to the ground without the will of our heavenly Father Which one would think were matters of too little moment for our wise Father to reckon up or regard and take notice of But the reason is he being omnipresent and omniscient and that eternally cannot possibly be ignorant of the least occurrences that may possibly insue He being an infinite spirit and all things being naked and open before him and that from the very beginning he declareth the end from the very beginning He saith unto Job Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the Earth declare if thou hast understanding See Job 38.4 By which it appeareth that the Lord well knew and could also declare where the very materials of Job were of which he was composed and that from the very beginning And Job acknowledgeth also I know that thou canst do every thing and that no thought can be hid from thee Chap. 24. 2. Nay he understandeth our thoughts long before we think them The Lord foresaw and discovered unto Moses what the people of Israel would do after his decease and therefore gave him a propheticall song to be a witness against them See Deut. 31.16 c. to the 22. He knew their Imagination which they went about even then before he brought them into the land But I should hope that you would not stand in such conceits and misapprehensions as to set bounds and limits to the understanding and knowledge of God which is infinite and unsearchable and his waies in some things past finding out And if you will