Bibles become now the adequate object of faith sith no divine Revelation we know in these daies any where save in Scripture And yet all things in Scripture doe not alike essent ally belong to our faith but chiefly those things that concerne our salvation for Faith saith St. Paul is the substance of things hoped for so that those eternall blessings wee expect and hope for in the world to come those are the principall matter of faith Hence comes the applying and particular faith whereby we beleeve our sins remitted our selves reconciled into Gods favour and all the promises made to the faithfull in Scripture particularly and personally belonging to us I know there are many cavils betwixt our Writers and the Romish about the true nature of Faith Bellarmine and his Crue would have Faith no more than a bare assent to Gods revealed Truth as that Christ is the true Son of God that he was made man that he suffered was buried rose againe and the like Calvin and those that follow him would have it more than a bare assent namely together with our assenting an applying all the benefit of what we beleeve to our selves as that Christ died and rose againe for me that my sins are remitted that I shall be glorified in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting But this is objected by Popish writers to belong to Hope So Lapide What is Hope saith he if this be Faith If I must beleeve my selfe in the number of the Elect that I shall persevere to the end and be saved Why Hope can doe no more To salve this doubt we must in the second place enquire into the nature of Hope and it is defined by the Schoole to be Expectatio boni ardui futuri An expectation of some great good to come Here we may observe immediately no small difference from faith for the act of faith is to beleeve the act of hope to expect or look for Faith beleeves things good and bad hell as well as heaven torments to come as well as blessednesse Hope fixes only upon that which is good we hope for no other things than those that concerne our happinesse Faith is also as well of things past as of things to come but Hope is only of things to come We beleeve that Christ died and rose againe by faith as well as that hee shall come to judgement wee cannot hope that Christ shall rise again as we hope he shal come to judgement So then as Hessusius Hessusius well notes there is no such confusion betwixt our Faith Hope as Lapide talks of for by faith we beleeve all manner of good things and evill things revealed in Gods word be they past present or to come But by Hope wee embrace only good things and those neither past nor present but to come and such as wee earnestly desire and wait for Consequently that my sins are remitted is not matter of Hope but of Faith for this is a thing presant That I am an elect child of God not matter of Hope neither but of Faith for it is a thing past our election is from eternitie But that I shall persevere and be saved that is a matter as well of Hope as of Faith because it is a future good Herein only is the difference that by faith I beleeve my salvation to come and assent unto it as a sure thing but by Hope I long and wait for my salvation to come and wish and pray for it as a good thing So that faith is the ground of hope and hope the perfection of faith No such confusion therefore betwixt a justifying faith and a religious hope as our cavilling Romanists imagine By this you see how faith and hope differ we come in the next place to charitie which is defined by the learned to be Habitus quo diligitur Deus propter seipsum proximus propter Deum A vertue whereby wee love God for himselfe and our neighbour for Gods sake This appeares immediately distinguished from faith and hope for the act of faith is to beleeve of hope to expect but of charitie to love Againe faith beleeves things absent only and not seene but charitie loves as well what it sees as what it sees not And hope looks only for things to come but charitie loves things present likewise so that charitie is larger and fuller than either of the other Neverthelesse it cannot be denyed though charitie be larger yet it proceeds from the other for faith is the root both of charitie hope too He that comes to God must beleeve that God is saith St. Paul that he is a rewarder of them that seek him must beleeve first that God is there is faith then and faith first of all And secondly that he is a rewarder of them that seeke him there is the ground of hope suppose which and charitie will follow for if I hope for reward from God I cannot be so unnaturall as not to love him if it be but for the benefit sake I hope to receive from him Hope of earthly benefits begets love how much more hope of heavenly But untill faith and hope have gotten place I cannot love For before faith comes there is no knowledge of God at all and if no knowledge then sure no love for Ignoti nulla cupido We cannot love a thing we know not And though we know and beleeve there is a God yet untill wee find somewhat to hope for from this God we cannot love him Feare him we may indeed and admire him but not truly love him till wee find in our faith the substance of things hoped for that is some benefits received or expected from him and then comes in love which yet is no true love while it is but mercenarie while it loves God only for hires sake for those blessings it looks after from God for make the best of such a love it is but a meere concupiscentiall love such a love as a hungry man loves his meat with or a needy man his money Never is it right charitie indeed till it come to Amor amicitiae till we begin to love God as our selves nay not then neither is it right till wee have attained to prefer him above our selves to love of him better then when we have made God the ground and measure of our love so that we love him in the first place above all things else and our selves and other creatures in the second place in and for God then our charitie growes true and kindly indeed plant such a love in us once and all the Commandements of God will be easie then faith and hope wax strong and grow both the riper and the fairer by the heat of this love and so yee see in part what these three vertues are which is our first particular In the next place wee proceed to see what is affirmed of them Three things yee may here observe delivered of these three vertues in common First
delight which abide for ever in his presence hereafter Amen The end of the first Sermon THE SECOND SERMON Hebrews the 11. Chapter the 6. verse For he that commeth to God must beleeve that he is and and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seeke him BEing indebted by my promise to handle particularly the Articles of the Creed which is the summe of our Christian faith I have chosen this Scripture to begin with which is the summe of the whole Creed of all the Articles in it As Faith may bee called the Ground-worke of Religion whereupon Hope and Charity and all other Vertues are built So this Scripture containes the ground-worke of faith it self the very foundation of that on which all Christianity is founded For as no Christian can be saved without faith so no faith possible except wee bee perswaded of thus much before hand namely That God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seeke him Which sentence I deemed so much the more necessary to handle by way of preparative before the Articles of the Creed because it appeares of more antiquity and more universality then the Creed and all the Articles of it yea more ancient then Scripture it selfe out of which the Creed is taken For thus much before any Scripture was written was necessary for all men to beleeve as appeares by the Apostles instance in this place Saint Paul is discoursing here of the faith of the Patriarkes and particularly of Abel and Enochs faith Enoch saith he was translated that he should not see death And he was translated by faith By saith he was translated because he pleased God And without faith it is impossible to please God upon which conclusion if any shall demand what saith had Enoch or what faith Abel that lived so long before any Scripture was written why this faith they had faith Saint Paul this at least without which no saith is imaginable nor any comming to God possible namely that God is and that hee is a rewarder of them that seeke him This faith they had and this as it should seeme was enough to please God and to save them as the world went then but this is not enough for us now We have more Revelations from Heaven even aboundant ones in many ages and many successions in many writings of the Prophets and Apostles and all these are necessary for us to beleeve now Even all the written bookes of the Bible and every thing contained in them for we are to acknowledge them to be Gods Word and if Gods Word then to imbrace and beleeve them and to doubt of nothing in them So that the whole Scriptures are now become necessary for every Christian man of ripe reason on perill of salvation to beleeve To beleeve I say but not particularly to know or remember that is not necessary to salvation for that is businesse enough for a learned Divine that hath nothing else to doe to understand particulars of Scripture and remember them But all must bee beleeved though beleeve I by the most ignorant and all received upon the credit of Gods Spirit as Gods Word whether knowne particularly or no. And yet though all particulars neede not by men of meane capacity bee knowne some must some particulars of Scripture knowne explicitly and beleeved expresly or no salvation for men of ripe judgement possible And those are the heads of Christianity summed up in the Creed which is a short confession of our Faith comprised by the primitive Fathers of the Church to that end that every 〈◊〉 might have it ready as an abstract of all that was necessary And this they did not to make Lay-men carelesse or lazy that they should not care to know more but to direct yong beginners and to leave all of all sorts without excuse that would not know this Because saith Aquinas Faith is the substance of things hoped for And those things only belong essentially to saving faith which concern our Hope the means of salvation And because many things contained in Scripture pertaine not so directly to these as that Isaac had two sonnes that Iacob was in Aegypt and the like therefore are those points that directly concerne mens salvation and the meanes of it summod up in the Creed so that all men are now necessarily bound to know and beleeve thus much at least how much soever they know more Thus then the Scripture is now the rule of Faith and the Creed is the summe of Faith so much as is essentially necessary to every ones salvation But of old before the Scripture was written this ground-work sufficed This may be called Abels and Enochs Creed which is the preparative also to ours and all mens else namely that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that seeke him The words being a conclusion by way of Analysis seeme to imply not onely the summe of our Faith but of our Hope and our Charity too that is the substance of all Religion For our Charity that yee have touched in the first words Hee that comes to God Comes to God that is desires to come neâ—re him to be joyned and united to him saith Estius and such a comming is the very act of love Then for our Hope that yee have in the last words namely that God is a Rewarder of them that seeke him that grounds our Hope For our Faith it is the very heart of the Text that which the Apostle would infer He that comes must beleeve beleeve that God is and that he is a Rewarder c. So that upon presupposall of the necessity of our love St. Paul here grounds our faith and our hope too or rather shewes that our love is to be grounded in faith and hope or else it can never be a right love Love is the top of the building as yee heard last Sunday Love the goodly Tarias the beauty the Crowne and superstructure of all Well but Cogitans â—dificium charitatis necesse est ponaâ— fundamentum fidei saith a Father He that would build up this goodly Tower of Charity must lay the foundation low and strong in a sure faith Oportet accedentem credere Hee that comes that is he that would draw nigh to God by his love must first approach by his faith He that commeth to God must beleeve that he is That the Apostles way of arguing is thus analyticall appeares by what goes before There St. Paul tels us of Enochs translation at the first verse translation to heaven that is glorification glorification presupposes sanctification Before hee was translated Enoch had this testimony that hee pleased God Please God how could he except hee came to him that is except hee loved him For as glorification is the end of our way and implyes an arrivall to and an union with God So Sanctification which is by Charity is the course of our way by which wee still get ground and come neerer and neerer Now impossible we
favour If his Charitie be gone if he have lost his first love his life is gone Of such an one it may be said Thou hast a name that thou livest but thou art dead If his hope be gone he is wrapt in despaire The ship hath lost her anchor and who shall save her from rocks or sands if hee have lost his faith the verie foundation of all is gone then Hee is somewhat worse than an Infidell because hee denies what once hee acknowledged So that as long as well live these three vertues must live in us or towards God wee live not and if these things bee in us they will make us wee shall not bee barren nor unfruitfull as Saint Peter saith For these are the substance of all Religion the ground and foundation of true righteousnesse saith Musculus both in the Old and New Testament without these all Ceremonies all Sacraments all outward worship is but dead Sacraments may vary and Ceremonies may vary but these thorowout all parts of our life and thorowout all ages of the world abide the same There is but one Faith one Hope one Baptisme saith St. Paul Ephes 4. consequently but one Charitie as there is but one God the maiâ—e object of Charity Not only abide then these three vertues doe but they abide still the same And abide now that is in the soules of the faithfull during the state of mortality for this Now points to our state of mortality as appeares by the verse afore our Text Now wee see thorow a glasse darkly but then face to face Now that is in the time of this life Then that is in the time of the next So now abide Faith Hope and Charity that is all the while we live here so doe not miracles so do not tongues and prophesie and the gifts spoken of before For these are neither common to all the Elect saith Musculus nor remaine to the end of our lives nor yet necessarily include Hope and Charity not common to all the Elect for many good men want those miraculous gifts nor abide to the end of life for they that have them oftentimes are at a losse the Prophets alway prophesie not neither do the divinely-inspired alwayes speake with tongues but at set times as the Spirit moves them Neither doe these include Charity for we may understand all Prophecy and speake with the tongues of men and Angels yea and have the gifts of Miracles too to move mountaines and yet for lack of Charity come to nothing Charity therefore and Faith and Hope they abide to the last so as none of the other doe They continue the whole Nunc of our life out to the end and we cannot be a moment without them that is without the habite of them As for the act wee doe not perhaps alwaies actually beleeve actually hope or actually love our weake frailty will not permit it but yet we must alwaies have these Graces in habit that is stand ever prepared for the act as occasion serves And thus they abide all three of them necessarily and joyntly and uninterruptedly while wee abide in this world abide they doe all three but one of the three hath the advantage of them for it not onely abides in this world but in the next too Nunc in saeculâ— saeculoriâ— That is Charity and that is the reason why it is preferred above the other The greatest of these is charity Which brings us to the second generall namely the comparative part wherein Charity carries the preheminence among the divine vertues themselves Major autem horum charitas c. For the proofe of which Proposition observe first how Charity beares the sway among the other It commands and moves and as it were enlivens the rest Our love stirres us up to beleeve more and more to hope more and more and the more we love the stronger wee beleeve the more earnestly we hope As it were the Soule over the members so Charity commands all other vertues All worke all doe their parts at Charities bidding so that very well by the Schoole-men she is termed the essentiall sorme of them all For take Faith without Charity and it is a cold and heartlesse thing no warmth no spirit in it we seele no joy in such a saith at all Take Hope without Charity and what is it but a withering â—erbe in cold of winter no sap no juyce in it there is neither delight nor feeling in either of them till Love breath upon them and give them a new life Then Faith is able to stand all encounters and Hope lifts up her head in the forest tryalls when Charity sweetens them all Charity therefore is the greatest and highest of all vertues so much better then Faith and Hope as the building is better then the foundation as the fruite is better than the stalke that beares it Nay Charity it is like the Sun among the lesser Plannets saith Lapide It gives light and vigour and soule to all other graces It is like the fire among the Elements like Gold among other metalls like the Empyraean Heaven above the lower Oâ—bâ—s like the Seraphims among the lesser Angels For Charity is indeed the 〈◊〉 Celestiall fire that inflames the hearts of Gods chosen Charity the true Gold wherewith in a sort we purchase heavenly Merchandise Charity the true Empyraean Heaven wherein dwells God and his Angels that Heaven which enlightens inspires and regulates all the rest Charity is the Seraphicall vertue indeed which makes the Seraphims themselves ardently burning from whence they have their name The same that the Sunne is in the World the Magistrate in his City the Mariner in his Vessell is Charity in the heart of a Christian Without the Mariner the Vessell slotes at randome and perisheth Without her Magistrate the City falls to confusion without the Sun the whole World were darke and without Charity our very life it selfe hath scarce any life in it For Love is the life of life Love is the soule of the World so that God himselfe is called by the name of love 1 Iohn 4. Nor wonder at Saint Iohn for it for of all the vertues in the World none so nearely joynes and unites us to God as love doth Consequently Charity must bee the greatest of all divine vertues as Aquinas notes well For among morall Vertues that is the greatest which comes nearest to the rule of all vertue to wit Right reason That doth Prudence which toucheth the rule as neare as neare may be being it selfe nothing but the view of right reason Consequently prudence is the greatest morall Vertue because it is next the Rule And by the same reason is Charity the greatest of all divine vertues and morall too for the Rule of divine vertues is not reason but God that made reason who is the Rule of reason it selfe Consequently that vertue which toucheth nearest upon God the prime Rule of Rules must needs be the greatest vertue that may be imagined and
of our Saviour If any man will doe my Fathers Will he shall know of my Doctrine whether it bee of God or no. And therefore expedient it is every way both on our part and on Gods part for our debasing and Gods exalting for our proficiency and his excellency for the conviction of Insiders and the edification of one another that our apprehen on of things divine should not bee science but credence not knowledge but faith onely A strong Oportet it is therefore and a reasonable one He that comes to God must beleeve and beleeve God himselfe revealing himselfe to him And this is Credere Deo he must beleeve but what ye will aske what is hee to beleeve many things else that concerne his salvation But this one especially which is the ground of all others namely that God is which brings us to the third gradation touching the beleefe of Gods essence which is Credere Deum He that comes to God must beleeve that God is c. Two points of beleefe wee have here lying before us one concerning Gods existence that he is Another concerning his providence that he is a Rewarder of them that seeke him Both very necessary to be taken in our way to all other points of faith for all other in a manner depend on these Necessary it is saith Calvine who ever proposes to himselfe the service of a divine power that he should first beleeve such a power there is without which there were nothing to be sought And secondly that he should perswade himselfe somewhat were to be gained by his service that this power would reward those that sought to it or otherwise all seeking were vaine The first intimates a Treasure as it weâ—e to be found which may invite our labour A God there is he hath a certaine being And the second puts us in hope we may attaine this Treasure our labour shall not be without successe Wee shall â—nde this Treasure and bee inriched by it for God is a Rewarder of them that secke him These two comprehend the two maine drifts of all reasonable counseâ—s and motions of the World For every motion guided by reason saith Aquinas must have a Terme whereto and anâ— end wherefore it is undertaken The former is knowne by the question Quo whither tend we the latter by Quamobrem to what purpose as for example The Merchant goes forth on his adventure quo whither to such a Port. Quamobrem to what purpose to Trade and get gaine The Husbandman rises early and gets him forth whither to his field To what purpose to Sow or Reape and the like So here he that intends a religious life begins his progresse by faith whither tends he toward God that is the Terme of the motion Hee must beleeve first that God is Then quamobrem to what purpose tends hee that he may obtain an eternall reward that he may find mercy and be saved that yee may have in Deum Remuneratorem in beleeving That God is a Rewarder of them that seeke him And these two virtually also containe the whole Creed saith Aquinas and consequently all that is essentially necessary to salvation For if yee marke it the Creed either teacheth to beleeve what God is in himselfe or what he is towards us Either it containes Finem ad quem or media per quae saith one either the being of Gods divine Majesty which is the end of our heavenly Race the marke whereto wee tend or the meanes to arrive at this mark the way that leades to God The way that leades to God is none but Christ the Redeemer Hee himselfe calls himselfe the way the Truth and the life So that all the Articles of the Creed they pertaine either to the Deity or the Humanity saith Aquinas The Deity which implyes the end whereto and the Humanity of Christ which implyes the way whereby The former of these belongs to the first part of our Text viz. our beleeving that God is And the latter belongs to the second that God is a Rewarder of them that seeke him To the first head of Gods being yee may refer the first Article of the Creed touching the unity of God and his Omnipotence shewne in the worlds Creation As also the second touching the Deity of Christ And the eight touching the person of the Holy Ghost whereunto some adde the twelft and last touching the life everlasting which consists in the vision of the Deity But more properly that belongs to the second head touching our beleefe that God is a Rewarder For life everlasting is indeed that blessed Reward we hope for from God To this head likewise belong all other Articles that concerne the way to eternall life As the Articles of our Saviours Incarnation his Passion Resurrection Ascention and comming to Judgement The Articles that concerne the Catholick Church the forgivenesse of sins and lastly the Articles which containe the Reward it selfe as the Resurrection of the Body and the life everlasting So that in these two points namely that God is and that he is a Rewarder That God is the thing to be sought and that Christ and his benefits are the way to seek him by that God in himselfe is the fountaine of blisse and that God to reward those that seek him hath set forth in Christ the meanes of this blisse is the summe and substance of the whole Creed and consequently if thus interpreted enough as Salmeron thinks to save them that had no other Revelation To touch upon these two points in their order First that God is Oportet It is necessary saith Saint Paul that whosoever comes to God should beleeve in the first place that God is for this is Primum credendum the first thing wee can apprehend possibly concerning God that he is that hee hath a being so that beleeve not this and beleeve nothing As there is no comming to God then except we beleeve so no beleeving in the least degree except we beleeve thus much touching Gods existence quia est that hee hath a true being for an sit whether a thing be or not is primum quarendum the first question about any object that can possibly be made Consequently this point it is not so much an Article of the Creed as a preamble to it saith one as the maine ground-work whereupon the whole Creed and all the Articles of it leane That God is note it well saith Chrysostome but not what hee is The Apostle saith not He that commeth must beleeve what God is and be able as it were to define him No that is not inter prima credenda among the first things to be beleeved but among the last rather a thing in a manner beyond our apprehension while we are in this would to perceive perfectly what God is reserved rather for our hope in the next world saith Tena For all the knowledge we have in this world it is but only from the effects of God his goodnesse or his power or the