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	spirit_n	worship_v	6,337	5	9.5072	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01898	A childe of light vvalking in darknesse: or A treatise shewing the causes, by which God leaves his children to distresse of conscience. The cases, wherein [God leaves his children to distresse of conscience.] The ends, for which [God leaves his children to distresse of conscience.] Together vvith directions how to come forth of such a condition: vvith other observations upon Esay 50. 10, and 11. verses. By Tho: Goodwin B.D.	Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.	1636 (1636)	STC 12037; ESTC S103254	155,960	295

as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather implies as the ligaments and the sinews and the tendons by which the joynts doe move so these are they upon which our designs doe move and turne Even all those cogitationes compaginatae plotting thoughts the word it discovers and cuts up and also judgeth and examineth and passeth sentence upon them yea and that so exactly as not the smallest fault can passe uncensured by it it is as a curious Critique in this review 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it judgeth exactly as Critiques use to doe So as by this anatomy which the word makes all things in man every creature even the least Fibra the smallest string in the heart which would escape the sight of the most exact Anatomist are all naked and opened and cut up afore the eyes of him with whom we have to doe The reasons why God hath reserved this to himself The reasons are 1. It was for the glory of God that hee should have one private cabinet among the creatures which hee alone should know and keep the key of which might argue his omniscience as also one place to be sanctified in whither no creatures eye could pierce That so the greatnesse of his glory might appeare namely in this that he is not worshipped outwardly only as great ones are but inwardly in spirit and truth and that his glory is such as commands the inward parts which no eye seeth but his own so as a man will respect God so much as to sanctifie him in secret when no creature looks upon him 2. That God alone might be the Iudge and rewarder of mens wayes and so look'd at by them to whom alone men must give an account which would draw the creatures eye alone upon him when the strength and first borne of all our actions are his subjects alone and do come under his eye and view Therefore it is said that hee rewards men according to their works 1 Kings 8 39. whose heart he knowes It was fit that hee onely should take upon him to reward who only could know the principles of all actions in which the chiefe of the good or evill in the action lies This is the great glory of God and Christ at the day of judgement that they will discover the secrets of all hearts 1 Cor. 4. 5. It is not said so much of mens actions that they shall be then discovered as that the secrets of their hearts For therein lies Gods glory which he will not give to any other This premised as a most necessary Caution § 2. I come to the disquisition of that Quaere mentioned How satan hath matter to accuse object against us How and how farre Satan may come to know so much matter against us whereof to accuse us 1. In generall it may be considered Two generall considerations 1. That he knowes what ends 1. That hee knows what corruptions are in all mens natures and may obiect them to every one and intentions and thoughts and lusts such corrupt hearts as ours usually produce and bring forth in all men and therefore can imagine what by-ends c. may be stirring in such and such actions and solay them to our charge and so often hit right therein speake a mans heart thus at randome For our natures are apt to bring forth all concupiscence as the Apostle sayes Rom. 7. Therefore if there were no more then that hee knowes all temptations common to mans nature hee might goe far in accusing every man he having keyes of all sorts sorted to all mens spirits tryes with every one which will enter And as Davids elder brother charged David when he came into the warres This is the pride and the naughtinesse of thy heart guessing at his by-ends in it so doth satan hee often in like manner charges us by guesse Thus he did Iob Doth Iob serve God for nought hee knew such by-ends were in some mens hearts and so ventures to lay them to Iobs charge also 2. Though he should know very little of us 2. By casting in a jealous thought from some one particular he knows by us he might set the heart awake to examine all the rest yet he may from some one particular which hee doth know or suspect cast in a suspitious thought about a mans estate and so set the jealous heart aworke it selfe to search out more matter against it selfe As in case of treason the least hint given by some one sets the State aworke to examine the bottome of the businesse and so to get all out So as satan often gives and casts in but a scruple which proves as a theame for the heart it selfe to dilate upon and the conscience upon enquirie finds matter against it self to prove and encrease that surmise Thus in generall But 2. he may more particularly know much against us to accuse us of 2. More particularly and so frame bills against us out of what hee knowes He may know and this first supposing he had no accesse to our inward parts and that hee had no further way of knowing of us then men have one of another it being made the limits of mans knowledg by God to Samuel to judg by outward appearance yet all those advantages which men have to know one another by he hath over us more then any man can have and all more eminently For 1. 1. All corporeal acts committed Those spirits can discerne all corporeall actions though not of all men at once for then why should satan travaile up and downe the earth to review all in it● yet in that distance is proportioned unto them they understand not onely by innate inbred species but some things per species acceptas à rebus They learn daily This by the Church the good Angels are said to learn what they never knew before of the mysteries of the Gospell Eph. 3. 10. and though these species in them and their manner of knowing corporeal things differs from ours yet they are analogicall with ours and wee no more know the manner how they should receive species à rebus corporeis the images of all things done by bodily substances then a blind man can imagine how men that see should receive in colours yet this wee may be sure of that all that the senses or minde of man can know that they can also for naturall things are all Debita objecta due objects made for them for they were therefore made to be discerned by intelligent creatures and if by any then by the most supreme and intellectuall natures 2. They make it their businesse to study men 2. Which knowledge he improves by study it is their trade to goe up and downe and consider men Hast thou not considered sayes God to satan my servant Iob Satan useth to consider and study men and as the Apostle exhorts to consider 〈◊〉 another to provoke to love so satan considers men to provoke to sinne

themselves in such a cōdition so as to come more comfortably the more speedily out of it For it is in these long and great sicknesses of the soule as in those of the body men are kept the longer in them and under them for want of right directions and prescriptions as wee see in long agues and fevers and the like diseases Direction 1. FIrst To take heed of rash impatient and unbeleeving speeches wishes take heed of rash desperate impatient and unbeleeving speeches and wishes such you wil be forced to recall again with sorow As David when hee was in feares uttered a desperate speech namely that Samuels prophecy cōcerning him and message to him from God that he should bee King would prove false and he sayes not onely that one day he should perish by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27. 1. The ground of which speech was that he 〈◊〉 himselfe every day in some danger or other of his life and so though God had preserved him againe and againe yet he thought that some of those many arrowes which were shot against him so continually and which still so narrowly mist him might at one time or other hit and speed him it were a wonder else but he sayes further I said in my hast Psal 116. 11. that all men are lyars the Prophet Samuel and all that it was but a promise of a vaine man but he soone recalls himselfe and addes I said this in my hast So likewise Ps 31. 22. I said in my hast I am cut off they were rash speeches as he confesses spoken in hast Even so doth many a poore 〈◊〉 breake forth and say after they have had strong hopes at first conversion that a Kingdome is theirs that heaven is theirs and that it is reserved for them and they kept for it also through the power of God Yet the devill being let loose to 〈◊〉 them as Saul did him and God hiding his face and the arrowes of the Almighty flying thick about their eares the sorowes of hell encompassing them and well nigh every moment cutting them off they although upheld againe and againe yet are apt to say that one day or other they shall in all likelihood be cut off by Gods hand swallowed up of Satan and everlastingly destroyed And when they are told of the hopes they had at their first conversion and the promises that are made to them they are apt to say that their grace by which they should now claime those promises are all a lie false and counterfeit and but in hypocrisie this they say in their hast too often So at another time 〈◊〉 David was in doubt about that other pro●●sse of an eternall Kingdome made to him 〈…〉 he sayes God will never be mercifull 〈…〉 rate weake speech was this that what a man sees not at present he should conclude would never be but he acknowledgeth his errour in it It was my infirmity ver 10. thus to speake So the Church Lament 3. 17 18 19. I said my hope is perished from the Lord What a desperate speech was this but shee eates her words againe with griefe ver 21. This I recall to minde therefore have I hope Iob though for a while at the beginning of the storme he was somewhat calme and quiet in his spirit and it was his commendation and therefore in the first Chap. ver 22. it is said that in all this that is so long and thitherto he had not charged God foolishly but this held but to the first and second Chapter for when he begunne to bee wet to the skin once and the drops of Gods wrath began to soake into his soule then he falls a roaring Chap. 3. and Curseth the day of his birth and Chap. 6. ver 8 9. wisheth God would cut him off and Chap. 7. 15. sayes his soule did choose strangling rather then life For which speeches God in the end steps out as it were from behinde the hangings over-hearing him taking him up for them Chap. 38. 2. Who is this sayes he that talkes thus How now But good soules you that are in trouble oh take heed of such impatient wishes or speeches as these or the like that all which you have had is but in hypocrisie and oh that God would cut me off that I were in hell and knew the worst take heed I say When a man is sicke and raves whereas otherwise the Physitian and those that stand about him would in pitty use him gently they are forced to hold and binde him Impatiens agrotus crudelem medicum facit an impatient patient makes a Physitian more cruell then otherwise he would bee So God would deale more gently with thee but for such impatiencies And know that this is taking Gods name in vaine in a high degree You must know that the graces of God written in your hearts are a part of Gods name as whereby his love is manifested to you now for you to call the truth of these in question and say they are counterfeit is as if you should say of the Kings hand and seale when it comes downe to you that it were counterfeit and deny it which is crimen lasae Majestatis So if a speciall friend or your father had given you some old precious pieces of gold or jewels c. as tokens of their love and remembrances of them for you to say in a distempered fit of jealousie all these are but counters but Alchymie you should exceedingly wrong and abuse their love Thus is it if you deny Gods hand-writing in your owne hearts when he hath written therein by his Spirit joy feare love zeale c. and should say It is not like his hand So if you deny the seale of the Spirit after he hath sealed you up unto the day of redemption and say that all the earnest-penies of heaven are but counters and alchymie nothing worth in so doing you take his name his love his mercy and all in vaine yea you lye against the holy Ghost as the Apostle said in another case Thus though God give you full leave to try and examine all his graces in you and dealings with you yet not desperately at the first blush and view upon the least mistake or flaw to say they are no graces and that hee will never bee mercifull You abuse him when you do so Take heed of it Direction 2. SEcondly let the troubled soule make diligent search To make a diligent search and examination Let an inquisition be set up in thy heart So Ps 77. ver 6. David in case of desertion is said to do I communed with mine owne heart and made diligent search Now in this search make inquiry into two things First 2. Things to be searcht into what might be the true cause which provokes God thus to leave thee and hide himselfe from thee Secondly what in thine owne heart is the main doubt and objection reasoning and apprehension which causeth thee to feare

bottome when shipwrack was made of their goods good names and all for Christ yet they made not shipwrack of a good conscience And if thou dost thus call to remembrance things of old and yet canst finde no comfort at first from them as often yee may not as was Davids case Psal 77. for after his remembrance of his songs in the night still his soule was left in doubt and he goes on to say Will God ever be mercifull yet have recourse to 〈◊〉 againe and then againe for though they 〈◊〉 not at one time they may at another that it may be seene that God comforts by them and not they alone of themselves Hast thou found a 〈◊〉 which is a breast of consolation milklesse Isay 66. 11. yet againe suck comfort may come in the end 〈…〉 thou hast empanelled a Jury and grand Inquest to search and their first verdict condemnes thee of they bring in an 〈◊〉 yet doe as wise Judges often doe send them about it againe they may finde it the next time Ionah lookt once it 〈◊〉 and found no comfort Jonah 2. 4. For he said I will looke againe towards thine holy Temple A 〈◊〉 heart is like those two faced pictures if you looke one way towards one side of them you shall see nothing but some horrid shape of a devill or the like but goe to the other side and looke again and you shall see the picture of an Angell or of some beautifull woman c. So some have lookt over their hearts by signes at one time and have to their thinking found nothing but hypocrisie unbeliefe hardnesse selfe-seeking but not long after examining their hearts againe by the same signes they have espied the image of God drawne fairely upon the table of their hearts Direction 5. BUt now if former signes remembred 5. To renew a mans faith and repentance bring thee no comfort in but the waves that come over thy soule prove so deep that thou canst finde no bottome to cast anchor on the storme and stresse so great that no cable will hold but they snap all asunder as is often the case of many a poore soule Then 5. take and put in practice this fifth direction renew thy faith and repentance set thy heart aworke to beleeve and repent afresh as if thou hadst never yet begun Leave off and cease awhile to reason about the goodnesse of thy former faith and repentance and set upon the worke of beleeving and repenting anew spend not all the time in casting out of anchors but fall apumping Say well suppose I have not hitherto beene in the state of grace yet I am not uncapable of it for time to come I may obtaine grace yet Suppose my faith and repentance hath not beene true hitherto I will therefore now begin to endeavour after such as is true and to that end make this use of whatsoever flawes the devill findes in either to direct thee what to mend and rectifie for time to come begin to make up the breaches and unsoundnesse which is discovered endeavour after a supply of all those wants hee objects to bee in either to mend all the holes hee pickes Say Lord I cast my selfe upon thy mercies afresh I desire now to make my heart perfect with thee for time to come to part with every sinne to submit to every duty to curse every by-end to hell and to set up God Christ as my mark pole-star and aim in all and when thou hast done this let the devill say his worst This of all the former directions I commend to you as a speciall meanes to dissolve and put these temptations about assurance to an end I set a probatum est upon it take it practise it it is a tryed one it is that which at the last the Church in desertion comes to Lam. 3. 40. Come let 〈◊〉 try our wayes and turne to the Lord that is the last way and course shee takes Now when the water is at the lowest and the tide of assurance ebbed 〈◊〉 up your bankes as you use to doe at low waters Now when nothing but hypocrisie and unbeliefe and faisenesse of heart appeare to thee to be in thy heart doe thou groane sigh endeavour after the contrary sincerity let Satan say his worst this direction I now in the next place prescribe you because in time of tēptation about assurance it is the usuall course of some troubled soules to spend 〈◊〉 their thoughts upon what formerly they have had as if they must have comfort onely from the former worke or no way laying out all their time and cost in new suites new trials about their former title and when they have beene cast againe and againe yet still to doe nothing but reade over olde evidences againe and againe and bring in and study new proofes But know that though this is to bee done and not to be neglected and is found often comfortable therefore in the former direction I exhorted to it yet you are not onely to take that course nor to look back so much to your former faith and repentance as to forget to practise new But begin to practise new acts of faith and repentance this is the rightest way the shortest cut and requires as little paines thou maist with as little charge get a new Lease renewed as prove good the old one it will require many termes to examine over all thy evidences againe and againe which also haply are blotted and blurred thou maist cut the knot and dissolve the temptations sooner by new faith then untie it by reasonings and disputings And the truth is in the end thou must come to this for Gods great end in deserting is to put you upon renewing your faith repētance Except ye he cōverted as Christ sayes to his Apostles Converted as it were anew He will not deliver thee out of the dungeon till thou entrest into new bonds and baile for thy good behaviour Therfore begin to do it soon And whereas thou thinkst that by this thou maist prejudice thy former title that is not my meaning as if thou shouldst utterly give up thy old faith and repentance as counterfeit I will keep my integrity sayes Iob only my advice is to forbeare and to cease pleading of it for a time and to begin to renew it rather that is it I exhort unto And then the comfort of thy old repentance will come in As the Apostle sayes of the Law so I of thy former title it is not destroyed but established rather by this And as Christ sayes Iohn 7. 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine that it is of God So as often the best way to know the truth is not to spend all the time in disputing about it but to practise it which puts an end to controversies in mens hearts so say I to know the truth of and so to come to have the comfort of former grace is to