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	spirit_n	worshipper_n	1,614	5	12.0333	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27365	Essays about the poor, manufactures, trade, plantations, & immorality and of the excellency and divinity of inward light, demonstrated from the attributes of God and the nature of mans soul, as well as from the testimony of the Holy Scriptures / by John Bellers.	Bellers, John, 1654-1725.	1699 (1699)	Wing B1828; ESTC R19644	23,851	33

and are upheld by him and do declare of his great Power and Wisdom to whom we owe all Obedience Subjection Reverence Homage Thanksgiving Worship and Praise World without End Of Man's Soul THE Soul of Man is the most invisible spiritual and intellectual Part of this Creation And therefore the Soul beyond all other Creatures is most capable of apprehending the invisible and spiritual Manifestations of God Now as God is infinite and omnipresent in all Places he consequently is within the Bodies of Men as well as without them And God being the most invisible Light Spirit and Life he penetrates all Beings and Spirits more throughly than the visible Light at Noon-day doth the Air the Sun-Beams being but a Shadow to him that Light discovering Bodies only but this inward Light discovers the most hidden Thoughts And as God only who is Light can penetrate Men's Souls and beholds the most inward Thoughts and Desires thereof so he only is able and doth shew them to Men whether they are good or evil And as Men's Wills and Affections comes to be subdued to the Will of God he discovers to the Souls of Men. What is to be known of him the pure in Heart only seeing God For tho God is in all Places and fills all things yet all Beings have not the same Degree of Sence of him because they are not of the same Capacity of knowing or not equally prepared to apprehend and see so pure invisible and intellectual a Spirit And it may be said of visible Bodies as of Darkness it self that tho God shines in them they comprehend or apprehend him not for indeed they want all Sence of Apprehension as the greatest Light is unknown to the blind and the greatest Sounds to the deaf so also the Souls of Men which are given up unto the Delights of sensual Objects until they are born a new they do want their Faculties to be sufficiently spiritualized to behold the immaterial Glory of God tho his Light doth shew them their evil State and his Spirit reproves them they do not see him That Degree or Manifestation of Light which only discovers a Man's unhappy State to him appears far less glorious tho' it is divine than that which gives Peace and discovers the Glory of God as Man obeys it Yet all divine Light which appears to Men flows from the Father's Glory through the one Mediator our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is full of Glory in himself whilst it is the Stupidity of Men only that makes them unable to see the Glory of this Light Acts 17. v. 23. I beheld your Devotions To the unknown God whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him declare I unto you 24. God that made the World dwelleth not in Temples made with Hands 25. Neither is worshipped with Mens Hands as tho he needed any thing seeing he giveth to all Life and Breath and all things 27. That they should seek the Lord if haply they might feel after him and find him tho he be not far from every one of Us. 28. For in him we live and move and have our Being as certain also of your own Poets have said Amos. 4. v. 13. For lo he that formeth the Mountains and createth the Wind and declareth unto Man what is his Thought the Lord the God of Hosts is his Name Eph. 5. v. 13. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the Light For whatsoever doth make manifest is Light 1 Joh. 1. v. 5. This then is the Message which we have heard of him and declare unto you That God is Light and in him is no Darkness at all Therefore for any to say that this inward Light is Man's Conscience is no better Divinity than it would be good Philosophy and Sence for them to say That the Light of the Sun is a Man's Eye when it is the Eye that is enlightned by it Of Christian Virtue REasons of State Profit Health Reputation or Danger of Punishment was part of the Motives given by the ancient Philosophers to perswade Men from Vice which as it is the least it is the first Step towards Wisdom Learning to do well through Love to Virtue being a Degree higher than ceasing to do evil for fear of Sufferings Now as none but God sees Mens Thoughts so if they do resist every Appearance of Evil when he through Christ first discovereth it to them in their Minds by his Light that is to be vertuous for God's Sake and it is a true Washing the Inside and a being truly religious at Heart By which early Opposition to Evil Men will be enabled the more easily to overcome it because a first Thought or Representation to a watchful Man hath not that Power upon his Affections as it will have after it hath been entertained And such a Watchfulness will the more effectually prevent evil Actions for whilst a Man thinks no ill to be sure he will do none This is putting on the Armour of Light and walking in it and a Warface tho not with carnal Weapons mighty through God to the pulling down of strong Holds casting down Imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the Knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every Thought to the Obedience of Christ. Of Divine Worship GOOD Morals and inward Virtue is a constant Attendant to Divine Worship for he that regards Iniquity in his Heart God will not regard or accept his Prayers Good Actions are as the outward Court to a clean Mind and a vertuous Soul is as the Temple to the inward Tabernacle where God is truly adored in which that Worship is the more acceptable which keeps out not only evil Thoughts which are always to be avoided but also such Thoughts which at other times may be useful and needful to entertain For this divine Worship is the more Spiritual as Men's Minds are more sequestred and silenced from Creatures and Imaginations not dull and sleepily but vigorous and earnestly seeking after and praying for a greater Purity of Soul and a farther Manifestation of God through the Inspiration of inward divine Light every Increase of Light being one Degree farther towards Glory Glory it self being Light uncomprehensible John 4. v. 21. Iesus saith unto her Woman believe me the Hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father 23. But the Hour cometh and now is when the true Worshipers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth A Cloud of Witnesses recorded in the Holy Scripture That the Three which bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and Holy Spirit which three are One infinite immence Light Life and Glory do manifest divine Light to Men. God being in Christ reconciling the World unto himself And Christ is in us the Hope of Glory For the Grace of God that