Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	lie_v	speak_v	word_n	3,929	5	4.2262	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61262	A little handful of cordial comforts scattered thorowout several answers, to sixteen questions, and objections following : intended chiefly for the good of those that walk mournfully before God ... / by Richard Standfast ...	Standfast, Richard, 1608?-1684.	1665 (1665)	Wing S5210; ESTC R33851	22,608	84

Question And yet after all this I must die and when a few years are come I shall go the way whence I shall not return and the fear of Death doth much amaze me Answer Verily there is no solid reason why it should for God hath given us victory over death it self through our Lord Jesus Christ The death of Christ was the death of death Death fastning upon him to whom it was not due lost it's sting and so became less able to hurt those that had deserved it Christ hath pulled out the sting of Death by dying for sin So that now like a Bee or Snake without a sting it may buzze about us and afright us but it cannot hurt us All the hurt that death can do to such as believe in the Lord Jesus is to free them out of Prison to put an end to their dayes of Sin to carry them home to their Fathers house to let them into their Masters joy to pull down those mouldring Cottages wherein they dwell and to build them up to Immortality For if we believe that Jesus Died and rose again them also that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him and they shall be for ever with the Lord. And of this Happiness the worst kinde of Death that can befall us cannot deprive us A Man may dye in Poverty he may dye with Extreamity of Torments he may dye by common Calamities and yet he may dye in Faith and so dying his End shall be Peace For Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord even so saith the Spirit c. Rev. 14.13 So that if we did but throughly understand the Nature of Death and what it is to the People of God we should be so far from being afraid of it that with Saint Paul we should rather desire to be dissolved because then we should be with Christ which is the best of all To shut up this Point and so likewise the whole matter concerning Afflictions this let me adde to the rest That if we do desire to get Good by these Meditations and to be upheld with Comfort in the time of Trouble we must Continue instant in prayer This is that Receipt which the Holy Ghost prescribes to all sorts of Persons against all manner of Grievances whatsoever James 5 23. This is that Remedy that is alwayes at hand and never out of season Yea this is that Messenger which being dispatched aright was never sent empty away Believe it If a Man were in a case more desperate then Death in a place worse then Hell yet if there he could pray heartily he should find Comfort and Strength even beyond Hope for our Prayers use to be with the utmost of our Hopes if not beyond them and yet God doth use to be better to us then our Prayers The Sixteenth Question I See now that there is matter enough of solid Comfort in the Word of God But the unevenness of my walking makes me to doubt that I have no Part nor Portion in those precious Promises which God hath made unto his People Answer Promises I confesse that are misapplied can afford to the Soul no solid Comfort But from our Failings we may not presently conclude That they do not at all belong to us For God looks upon the Heart and where Ability is wanting the Will is accepted Are not your Failings your Grief are they not besides your Will are they not contrary to the current of your Desires and the main bent of your Resolutions and Endeavours Is it not your Endeavour to do the Will of God though it cost you the parting with the Sweetest Sins even your own Iniquity And is it not your Resolution that you will not wickedly Depart from God If it be so then notwithstanding your Failings you may say with David I have kept thy Word For though this be not such a measure of keeping as the Law requireth yet it is such a keeping as God accepteth For he accounteth such as keep themselves from wilfull sins upright and innocent through Christ their Strength and their Redeemer as appears by that passage Psal 19.13 And this is a true Rule whereby to proceed in the judging of our selves If a Man that believes in Christ continues in an unknown Sin that cannot hinder the uprightness of his heart so the ignorance be not wilfull but the least touch of knowledge or wilfulness mars sincerity So that if our failings be not wilful though they be many yet they cannot hinder our interest in the promises of God And what can we now object more Do we doubt the truth of all these promises Surely we need not For God is not a Man that he should lye neither the Son of Man that he should repent Hath he spoken and shall he not do it Hath he said and shall it not come to pass Was he ever yet worse then his word And have not we had experience of his Love as well upon our selves as others Is he not the Faithful and True Witness and a God that is most zealous of his own glory Why then are we disquieted And why are our hearts dejected within us Still trust in God make straight steps to your feet Pray for Faith in the Promises and stir up your self to take hold of God tarry the Lords leasure and fear not Light is Sown for the Righteous and Gladness for such as be upright in heart It may lye buried in the ground out of sight for a season it may be somewhat long in coming up and very unlikely to come to any perfection Nevertheless in due season we shall reap if we faint not And therefore cast not away your confidence For the worst is past the good is begun the best is at hand Lift up therefore the hands that hang down and strengthen the feeble knees and run with patience the Race set before us and being partakers of such precious promises let us think upon them believe in them and live in them and in so doing we shall rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Hear the sum of all There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 There is no Condemnation and there 's our comfort The ground hereof is Christ the way unto it is by Faith to be in him the evidence of it Is to walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit In the matter of merit Christ is all in matter of interest and application Faith is all in matter of evidence and manifestation new obedience is all Nothing can free us from Condemnation but Christ nothing can give us interest in Christ but faith nothing can assure us that we do truly believe in Christ and shall be delivered from condemnation but a care to be obedient unto Christ in all things wherefore let us so believe and so live for as many as walk according to this Rule peace shall be upon them and upon the Israel of God Now the God of hope fill us with all Joy and Peace in believing that we may abound in hope through the Power of the Holy Ghost Amen and Amen In the multitude of the Thoughts within me thy Comforts delight my Soul Psal 94.19 FINIS

own ease to submit unto him when once we have found him Now when we can be content to accept of Christ upon any terms then are we ready for him then are we fit to be admitted into him And when we do seek unto Christ for this admission he regards not so much how long we were at School under the Law how often we were lashed by it or how sorely we have smarted under it But all that he looks after is whether we be fit to come unto him Consider therefore with your self had you ever such a sight and sorrow for your sins as made you weary of them and out of love with them and willing to be eased of them and desirous of Interest in Christ and ready to accept of Christ upon any Terms rather then to goe without him Is it your grief that you cannot be more sorrowfull and do not you desire as much to be kept from sin for the time to come as to have all that pardoned that is past Surely if you stand thus affected then are you fitted and made ready for Christ and whether your sorrow were great or little yet it is a token that it was a true and a godly sorrow because it worketh repentance unto salvation never to be repented of It may be yet further objected Thus The Sixth Question I Confess that I have been grieved for my sins and I have been desirous to believe in Christ But I fear that my Sorrow is not good nor my Faith sound because my obedience is so faulty For I am not so willing to forsake all my sins nor so carefull to yield Christ Obedience as I should be or if I am willing so to do yet mine infirmities and my failings are such and so many that I fear my sorrow and my faith are not such as they ought to be Answer Certain it is that sorrow for sin will nothing avail us without amendment of Life The wicked must forsake his wayes if he expect pardon Isa 55.7 And it is he that confesseth his sins and forsaketh them that shall find mercy Prov. 28.13 If we willingly allow our selves in the practice of any thing displeasing unto God our condition is dangerous If we say that we abide in Christ we must walk as he walked or else we deceive our own souls 1 John 2.6 If we say that we have fellowship with God and yet walk in darkness we lye and the truth is not in us 1 John 1.6 And if it be not our study and exercise to yield Christ an Universal Obedience our Faith is but Presumption our Peace is but Security our Hopes are but Shadows and our Expectation will Perish But if we have an hearty desire and a sincere endeavour in all things to live honestly we may not from our failings and imperfections presently conclude that we are not sanctified at all that we have no Faith no Interest in Christ no love of God in us For perfection is not to be attained unto while we be in the body But sincerity is that which may be had and affords unto us matter of comfort For the Lord loves them that do follow after Righteousness Pro. 15.9 And they whose sincere desire and endeavour it is to have respect to all the commandments are accepted of him If it be our unfained desire study and endeavour in Obedience unto Christ to do whatsoever he commandeth If it be our care to cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit and to perfect Holiness in the fear of God and not wickedly to depart from him in any thing I say if it be our unfained desire study and endeavour so to do we may safely conclude notwithstanding all our imperfections that our sorrow is good and our faith sound and that our sins are pardonable and our service is accepted and our souls shall be saved For in Gods account and acceptation that goes for a clean life which is not stained with wilfull pollutions and whose obedience is extended to the utmost of his knowledge and hath withall a purpose to amend what God shall hereafter make him know to be sinfull to that man is allowed the opinion of gracious See further of this point in Answer to Objection 16. The Seventh Question IF these things be so I find then that my condition at the present is good And if I were sure to dye in this Estate I make no doubt but I should be happy But I fear that I shall not continue in this Condition For my Enemies are Many and Mighty and Crafty and Watchfull and I myself am prone to Sin and apt to fall from my own Steadfastness And I finde by experience that many who have begun in the Spirit have ended in the Flesh and their latter Ends have been worse then their Beginnings This makes me to fear that I shall not continue faithfull unto the death And yet without this continuance I shall never Obtain the Crown of Life Answer All these things I confesse are true such are our Enemies such is our Weakness and the Misery of those that do turn back from the Holy Commandment given unto them is such that it had been better for them not to have known the way of Truth 2 Pet. 2.21 For they shall lose those things that they have done and their portion shall be with unbelievers So that a Man cannot chuse but have cause to fear Nevertheless there is comfort in God against this fear also Yea This very fear of Falling Away hath in it matter of consolation for it is a means to keep us from departing from God Ier. 32.40 And I will make an Everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Many there be that having begun well do yet at length grow weary of well doing and so lose what they have done And therefore let him that thinketh that he standeth take heed least he fall But yet let not our hearts be troubled let us not be dismayed with fear for the perseverance of such as are justified and sanctified in deed and in truth is certain and the foundation of God standeth sure the Lord knoweth who are his and he knoweth how to deliver them out of Temptation In further Answer to this Objection and the better to comfort us against this fear take special notice of these Texts of Scripture 1 Pet. 1.5 Who are kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time John 10.27 28 29. My Sheep hear my Voice and I know them and they follow me And I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never Perish neither shall any Man pluck them out of my hand My Father which gave them me is greater then all And no Man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand 2 Chro. 16.9 For the eyes of the Lord run to