Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	know_v	speak_v	word_n	9,131	5	4.2861	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53085	The best acquaintance and highest honour of Christians, or, A discourse of acquaintance with God by Matthew Newcomen.	Newcomen, Matthew, 1610?-1669.	1668 (1668)	Wing N905; ESTC R32164	42,574	130

that have ever had experience of acquaintance with God if they have not found more true real solid joy and comfort in one quarter of an hours secret converse with God yea in one friendly look or word of God than ever they did in all their lives besides you that are strangers to this I know will not believe it nor cannot think it but those that have experience of it will bear me witness that I speak the truth in Christ I lye not nor hyperbolize What is the comfort and joy of heaven it self but the presence of God sweet communion and converse with God so far therefore as we can attain this upon earth so far we have an heaven upon earth The Jews have a saying concerning the last day of the feast of Tabernacles which Scripture calls the last and great day of the feast Joh. 7.37 that he who never knew the joy of that day never knew joy in all his life but I am sure it is much more true here he that never knew the comfort and joy of acquaintance with God never knew true joy and comfort in all his life Well if all this that hath been said of the profit honour and comfort of acquaintance with God be not enough to perswade you that it is the great concernment of every one of you to get and keep this acquaintance I have but one thing more to add and that is that it is necessary for every one of you to acquaint your selves with God For tell me can you be content when you shall come to lye a dying and then knock at the gate of mercy saying Lord Lord open unto us Luke 13.25 can you be content that God should answer you as it is there I know you not whence you are Or can you be content that when you come to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ he should profess to you I never knew you Mat. 7.23 depart from me ye workers of iniquity If not O then labour to get acquaintance with God and Christ now for can you imagine that God and Christ will know them in death and judgment who care not for knowing him and acquainting themselves with him in the time of their lives CHAP. IV. Calling us to take notice of the wonderful condescension of God towards us in vouchsafing to admit us into his Acquaintance and of the madness and folly of those that care not for this Acquaintance HEre then see the infinite goodness and condescension of God towards us his poor and worthless creatures who though he be infinitely above us and stands not at all in need of of us nor cannot be in the least benefited or advantaged by us or by his acquaintance with us but before there was made either Man or Angel he was infinitely satisfied and infinitely blessed in the enjoyment of himself yet was he pleased to create Angels and Men not only to a fitness and capacity of but unto an actual communion and acquaintance with himself which was more than needed on God's part or was owing on our parts and when we like foolish and unthankful wretches upon the very first motion of the devil gave away this honour and happiness of acquaintance and communion for an apple as Esau sold his birth-right for a mess of pottage and thereby not only made our selves unworthy for ever to be admitted into Gods favour and acquaintance but unfit for it too as well as unworthy that God should yet please to stoop so low as to take us yet again into acquaintance with himself this speaks the wonderful goodness of God his infinite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or love to mankind When Esau had once undervalued the birth-right so far as to sell it for a mess of pottage though afterwards it grieved him for what he had done and he sought earnestly and that with tears to recover that blessing and birth-right which he had so foolishly lost yet it could not be so God might have dealt with Adam and every one of us The Text tells us Adam lived 930 years after his sin now if Adam had spent all those years in nothing but weeping and mourning for his folly and madness in parting with his birth-right his acquaintance and communion with God for an apple and in seeking earnestly and that with tears to recover communion and acquaintance with God again and after all had been denyed it yet God had been altogether just and righteous But behold the kindness of God and his love towards mankind As it is said of David when Absalom by his villanies had banished himself from his Fathers Court and presence it is said The soul of King David longed to go forth unto Absalom that is 2 Sam. 13.39 Davids heart was full of fatherly affection towards him and he longs to be friends with him again so did the heart of God even long towards man after his sin and fall and he did even long to be friends with him again and to renew his acquaintance and converse with him And this gracious disposition of his towards sinful man this great desire and inclination which God hath after peace and renewed acquaintance with sinful man God hath abundantly declared and testified First By appointing ordaining and giving one to be a Mediator a Reconciler a Peace-maker a Friend-maker between God and us Secondly By appointing and giving no other nor meaner Person to this work than his own blessed and dear Son who is the express image of his person Heb. 1.3 and the brightness of his glory Thirdly By giving this Son of his to be a Mediator not only by way of Intercession but also by way of satisfaction to make peace for us by paying our debts and satisfying for our sins which he could not do but by shedding his blood and laying down his precious life and yet rather than God would quite lose and abandon all his interest in us and acquaintance with us he would not spare his own Son Fourthly By testifying and proclaiming unto all men in the Ministry of the Gospel that he is reconciled to the world 2 Cor. 5.19 20. and by recalling and inviting sinners unto peace and acquaintance with himself Fifthly By profering his acquaintance unto sinners upon such easie and as I may say such cheap terms namely that we should repent of and cease from our hating of him and our being enemies to him and enter into a league of unfeigned love and friendship with him and would any of us take one that hath been our enemy into our acquaintance upon other terms than these Sixthly By his not only offering acquaintance with us upon those terms by his Embassadours his Ministers but by his coming personally by his Spirit to our several hearts inviting and solliciting us to this acquaintance According to that of our Lord Jesus Christ Behold I stand at the door and knock Rev. 3.20 if any man hear my voice and open to me I will come in to him