Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A43072
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The designe of God in the saints, or, The spirit transporting the minde of a Christian from the humane nature into the divine in the carrying on of which designe, the saint is a meere passive / by George Hassal.
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Hassal, George.
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1648
(1648)
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Wing H1133; ESTC R25419
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10,671
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26
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THE DESIGNE OF GOD In the SAINTS OR The Spirit transporting the minde of a Christian from the humane Nature into the divine In the carrying on of which Designe the Saint is a meere passive By George Hassal a member of the Army Zechariah the 4.th verse the 6.th Then he answered and spake unto me saying this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts LONDON Printed in the year 1648. TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Know that in the setting forth but of these few lines I shall be brought under the censure of two sorts of men the naturall and spirituall as for the naturall man I look not upon him as a competent Judge here for he knowes not the things of the Spirit neither can he for they are spiritually discerned and therefore how can he judge of those things he is ignorant of yet I am sure I shall not escape his censure however but blessed be the Father he hath taught me how to beare the hard censures reproaches and revilings of such men with patience whil'st I look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things that are seene are temporary but the things that are not seen are eternall But as for the spirituall man he knoweth all things that appertaineth to life and godlinesse The spirit searcheth the deep things of God and revealeth it unto him so that he is a competent Judge Judging all things yet he himselfe is judged of no man and therefore I am sure of his charitable censure because he can tell how to judge spiritually Now Gentle Reader which of these two thou art I doe not know but this I shall desire to certifie thee of that I doe not write this to teach thee of the Father as to say know him for that is the work of the Spirit nor to enlighten thy understanding for the Lord hath prepared a Lamp for his anointed even Iesus Christ the true light that lightneth every man that commeth into the world but if this may be to thee as an evidence to these truths as already manifested in thee I shall much rejoyce and so I believe thou wilt for from that short yet sweet experience that I have had of the Spirit I finde it to be the nature of the Saints in whom it is to rejoyce in one anothers light as Solomon saith in Proverbs the 13.th verse the 9.th The light of the righteous rejoyceth 〈◊〉 but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out The Saint who is truly spiritualized is as it were overwhelmed with extreme passions of Love Ioy and spirituall delight in beholding the same light in others that is in himselfe wherefore as the Apostle John then bare record of Christ comming in the flesh and being made manifest in the flesh so doe I now bare record of his coming in the Spirit in the flesh of the Saints and manifesting himselfe unto them and that as the flesh of Christ died at Ierusalem and rose againe so doth the flesh of a Saint when Christ comes dye to the old Adam and by the power of the resurrection of Christ live to the new Adam by the renewing of the mind the Saint being once clothed with Christ which is his Righteousnesse Mortality that came by the fall of the first Adam is swallowed up of life which is the second Adam and so Christian Reader this is my earnest desire that we may waite upon God for a further Manifestation of himselfe untill he shall renew our strength then shall wee mount up with wings as Eagles then shall we runne and not be weary we shall walke and not faint Isaiah the 40.31 Thine in the Bwels of love GEORGE HASSALL THE DESIGNE OF GOD IN THE SAINTS OR The Spirit transporting the minde of a Christian from the humane nature into the Divine THat which according to my apprehension of the Spirit of God I perceive to be his designe in every one of those he intends to manifest himselfe unto but are yet in this veile of flesh is to transport them from flesh to Spirit from fleshly Aegypt where they are in bondage to the spirituall Canaan where he will make them free from Babylon in the Mysterie where they are in Captivity unto Jerusalem in the Mysterie where they shall be free Denizens from the beauty and excellency of a fleshly creature to the beauty and excellency of the spirituall Creator from all worldly glory and honour whatsoever to that heavenly honour and glorious priviledge to be the sonnes of God and Coheires with Christ In whose presence is fulnesse of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore from the power of darkness unto his marvellous light from all outward or imaginary worships formes and carnall Ordinances to worship him who is the true God only in Spirit and truth in a word it is to transport the mind of a Christian or rather the mind which is the Christian when spiritualized from the humane nature of flesh to the divine nature of Spirit as Paul saith Though we have knowne Christ in the flesh yeet henceforth know we him so no more but in Spirit And so the Saint will say when he is got once to live with Christ in Spirit I knew Christ as I thought once in those fleshly dispensations or outward meanes as some call them but henceforth I shall desire to know him no more so but in Spirit as I doe The Saint being baptized with that one Baptisme not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ Peter the first the third and the 21. knowes Christ to be in him that heavenly Manna the bread of life and to be in him a Vine yielding fruit and to be in him a well of water springing up unto eternall life Paul saith that in the ministration of bread and wine they did but hold forth the Lords death till he came And when Christ which was the substance was come then the shadow was to be done away they were not to retaine the shadow with the substance and therefore sayes the Apostle Paul in Colossians the 2. d and the 16. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drinke or in respect of an holy day or of the new Moone or of the Sabbath dayes which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ When a man is new borne of the Spirit he is then a new bottle a vessell of honour fit for his masters use Now saith Christ Men doe not put old wine into new bottles but new wine into new bottles and both are preserved New spirituall wine is most fit for that Saint that is new spiritualiz'd Wherefore if he be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world should he be subject to
himselfe to the Father from the new Creature which in us is borne of the free-woman and not of the bond-woman of the Spirit and not of the flesh as Christ himself said that God is a Spirit so he said that they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth which is Christ himself He is the way the truth and the life In him we live move and have our being in him we are active and except we abide in him we can doe nothing as he saith in John the 15. ver the 5.th I am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can doe nothing So that when a man is borne again when he is brought up to live with Christ in the unity and onenesse of that ever blessed Spirit of himselfe he is then active and bringeth forth much fruit he is then no more a servant as he was before but a friend The servant saith Christ knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you He keeps nothing back from the Saints because they are his friends and he hath chosen them and ordained them that they should bring forth fruit and that their fruit shall remaine saith the Apostle Paul in the first of the Corinths and the last ver But we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord Where you may take notice that this change in a Christian is wrought by the Spirit this Spirit as a glasse is that in which we behold the glory of the Lord at the sight of which precious and beautifull aspect we are so enamored therewith that there is a present change wrought in us our mindes and affections are by the Spirit transported from all the glory beauty and excellency of the old Creation that is under the Sun that as Solomon said we behold them all to be but vanity and vexation of Spirit unto the glory beauty and excellency of the new Creation which is above the naturall Sun even Righteousnesse and peace and Joy in the holy Ghost A Saint having no sooner found this one Pearle of so great price but he goeth presently and sels all that he hath and buyes it when he is once borne of water which is the Spirit such is the powerfull operation of it that it worketh a Saint into its own nature as fire is said to do wood The law of this Spirit of life is that which frees us from the Law of sin and death it makes us free of that Citie the new Jerusalem that comes down from God out of heaven and indeed is in all the Saints and the Saints in it that live in this Spirit they have no need of the light of the Sun nor the light of the Moone which is the light of the first Adam and his glory but the Lord God shall enlighten them and the Lamb shall be their light which is the second Adam and his glory for as the first Adam was a type or shadow of the second so all those Types and Ordinances and the Law in the letter as given in Moses Administration though the very light and glory of the first Adam by which we only know good and evill yet but a shadow of the light and glory of the second Adam by which we not only know the will of God but are happy in doing of it The old man knows his Masters will but doth it not because he is weak but the new man he is strong it is his meat and drink to doe the will of his Father When the Saint doth come to behold the glory of God in Spirit to enlighten him and the Lamb to be his light by which he seeth his unity and oneness with the Father and the Son he then comes to the true knowledge of the Son of God and growes up to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ as it is in Ephesians the 4. and the 12. so that when the Saints come to have the enjoyment of that everlasting light spoken of in the 60.th of Isaiah They shall be so rooted and grounded in him that they shall not be tossed to and fro with every winde of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftines whereby they lye in waite to deceive men and therfore said Christ If it were possible they shall deceive the very elect but the Saints having once the enjoyment of this light it is impossible that ever they should be deceived for they are borne of the Spirit and are Spirit now the spirituall man judgeth all things yet he himselfe is judged of no man he cannot be seduc'd by false Prophets that shall say loe Christ is in this forme and loe Christ is in that forme he believes them not because the Son of Righteousnesse is already risen in him with healing under his wings the Day-star Christ Jesus is arisen in him Christ will in no wise suffer the wicked one to touch him For he hath desired him for his habitation Psal 132. ver the 13. and there he dwels and keeps possession in him and where is a stronger then he to turne him out Shall the gates of Hell prevaile against him no nor the Dragon neither our Michael will take a course to overthrow them and leave of them neither root nor branch in the Saint but will keep him as the apple of his eye which cannot behold iniquity Marke what Christ saith in the 60. of Isa and verse 17. unto the Saints or the Church For brasse I will bring gold and for iron I will bring silver and for wood brasse and for stones iron I will also make thy officers peace and thine exactors Righteousnesse What a sweet promise is here of Christ with some expressions which hold forth to us his more excellent and exceeding glory in coming then in the coming of the first Adam did the first man bring brasse with him why Christ will bring for that gold did the first man bring a fleshly Administration 06 why the second man is the Lord from Heaven heavenly he will bring a more heavenly and spirituall administration to the Saint when he manifesteth himselfe unto him But least I should here be mistaken I desire the Reader to take notice that what I call the Saint or Christian is not menat by me man as he is by nature visible to the naturall eye but that which I call the Saint is the minde of a man translated by the Spirit into the Image of God or taken off from the fleshly glory of creature to look upon and affect the spiritual glory of the Creator as is before expressed that is it which I call the Saint for saith Paul I thanke God that with my minde I serve God though with the flesh I serve sinne the minde sanctified is the Saint and so Paul was a Saint and so the minde being taken up by Christ from the humane nature of flesh into the divine nature of Spirit and translated into his Image or likenesse is properly said to be a Christian or new creature so that there is a clear difference between the law of the members in such a man and the law of his mind for the law of his member as Paul said is alwayes warring and rebelling against the law of his mind is what which sometime carries him away captive to sin Wherefore it is not the might of the Presbyter nor the power of the Magistrate either in constraining or in restraining that can make a Saint it is not their forms and ordinances that can any more bring a man to the spirituall Canaan then Moses could bring the children of Israel to the temporall Canaan he must be dead before they come there it is not all the powers in the world that can transport the minde of a man from the humane nature into the divine till when he is neither a Christian nor a Saint but the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of his might it is the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts that shall make the great Mountaine become a Plaine before Zerubbable it is he that hath laid the foundation and it is he that shall come and finish it wherefore I shall conclude with that saying of James in chapter the 5. verse the 7. and 8. Be patient therefore brethren to the coming of the Lord Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it untill he receive the early and latter raine Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh FINIS