Selected quad for the lemma: honour_n
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A14750
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The life of faith by Samuel Ward ...
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Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640.
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1621
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STC 25049A; ESTC S1745
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31,215
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132
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come from the dead that hath made proofe of this way and life and would speake of his own experience would we heare Behold Paul slaine by the Law reuiued by the Gospell what doe wee thinke of him Did he not from the time of his conuersion to the time of his dissolution enioy a constant tenour of ioy liue if euer any comfortably happily And doth not hee tell vs euen while he liued in the flesh that he liued by the Faith of our Lord Iesus Christ. Surely he must needs be blessed that liueth by the same faith with Bloffed Paul Come therefore you which desire to see good dayes and lay holde on the waies of life Beleeue and liue CHAP. II. Christ the Fountaine and Faith the meane of Life WHat then Commit we sacriledge against Christ in deifying of Faith Rob we the Lord to adorne the seruant with his diuine honours God forbid Let that be giuen to Christ which is Christs and that to Faith which is Faiths Let the power of life and death be intirely reserued euer ascribed to the Lord of life the well of life the light and life of the World the breath of our nosthrils the life of our liues Thy body oh man hath it soule which enliues it and so hath thy soule its soule whereby it liues and that is Christ the quickning spirit Take away the soule from the body and earth becomes earth seuer Christ and the soule what is it but a dead carrion Elementary bodies lighten and darken coole and warme die and reuiue as the Sunne presents or absents it selfe from them Christ is to our soules the Sunne of righteousnesse Sin parts vs Faith reunites vs And so wee liue primarily and properly by Christ as by the soule by Faith secondarily as by the spirits the bond of soule and body by a personall and speciall faith appropriating Christ to the beleeuer as the leg or arme liues by proper sinews arteries and nerues vniting it to the liuer heart and head such an one as Paul had in Christ that dyed for him whereby hee ingrosseth the common God to himselfe as if his and no bodies else Thus saith hee himselfe that is the Truth and the Life I am the Life and Resurrection of the World hee that beleeueth in mee though hee be dead yet shall he liue and not die And this is the testimony of those three heauenly and earthly witnesses God gaue life to the Sonne And he that hath the Sonne hath Life And he that hath Faith hath the Son So that whateuer we lend to Faith it redoundes to the honor of Christ neither haue we any sinister intent to praise the wombe or the paps of Faith but to cast all vpon Christ who giues and works this Faith in vs vivisies and nourishes it yea iustifies the imperfection thereof by the perfection of his merit Nay let Faith knowe that if shee should waxe arrogant towards her Lord or insolent ouer her fellow seruants she should Lucifer-like fall from her dignity and in so doing of the best of graces become the worst of vices Verily what hath the habite of Faith in it selfe considered better or equall with loue Is it not a poorer and meaner Act to beleeue then to loue more like a beggarly receiuing then a working and deseruing hand Haile then oh Faith freely graced graciously exalted aboue all Christs Handmaides Thy Lord hath looked vpon thy meane estate because that hauing nothing of thine owne as other Vertues haue whence thou mightest take occasion to reioyce thou mightest the better exclude that hatefull Law of boasting the more humbly and frankely reflect all vpon thy Lord who willingly emptied himselfe that he might fill thee with honour whiles hee sayes to the cured of the Palsey Goe thy way thy Faith hath saued thee Hence forth cals hee thee no more seruant or friend but stiles thee as Adam his Spouse Chauah the Mother of all Liuing Counts it no iniurie to diuide his praises with thee likes it well that thou which doest nothing but by him shouldest bee said to doe all things which he doth To purifie the heart to ouer come the world to saue men c. And è contra hee to doe nothing without thee which yet does all of himselfe Hee could worke no Miracles in Capernaum because they had no Faith So glorious and wonderfull things are spoken of thee I had almost said so omnipotent is thy strength which hast said to the Sunne and Moone Stand yee still yea if but as big as the least graine canst say to the greatest Mountaines Remoue What can God doe which Faith cannot doe if requisite to bee done Questionlesse Iustifying Faith is not beneath miraculous in the sphere of it owne actiuitie and where it hath the warrant of Gods Word It 's not a lesser power then these to say Thy Sinnes are forgiuen thee thy person is accepted of God what-euer thou askest thou shalt haue c. Wherefore we need not doubt vnder Christ without feare of Praemunire or offence to his Crowne and Dignity to affirme of Faith That it is Gods arme and power to the enliuing and sauing of euery beleeuer as it is written The Iust shall liue by Faith CHAP. III. The third kinde of the Life of Faith BVt least wee seeme to speake swelling thinges whiles we soare in the Cloud of generalities let vs descend to some solide particulars Three thinges there are whence commeth Death to the Soule of Man Sinne with the guilt thereof giues the first deadly blow exposing it to the wrath of God who is a Consuming fire whose anger is the messenger of Death whence came the first Thunderbolt striking thorough the Soule that sentence of God to Adam Thou shalt dye And such as Nathans to Dauid Thou hast sinned and art the childe of Death The second is the spott and corruption of sinne deprauing yea deading all the faculties of man to spirituall actions which made Paul cry out That which I would doe I doe not And wretched man that I am who shall deliuer me from this body of Death Thirdly that swarme of plagues and army of punishments in the re-reward wherof comes first a second death All which made Iob cry out Why is light giuen to him that is in misery and life vnto the bitter in soule which long for death more then for treasures and ioy when they can finde the graue Were it not for these three man might liue fare and doe well but sin hauing entred into the World brought in Death with it which reigneth and triumpheth ouer the sonnes of Adam with this three-forked Scepter of Guilt of Corruption of Punishment Here comes in Faith with a three fould Antidote brings vs to the Tree of Life whose fruit and whose leaues heale vs of the sting and deadly poyson of Sinne working in vs a three-fold life opposite to the forenamed deaths The first is the life of righteousnesse discharging vs
THE LIFE OF FAITH By SAMVEL WARD Preacher of Ipswich The second Edition corrected and amended LONDON Printed by Augustine Mathewes for Iohn Marriot and Iohn Grismand and are to be sold at their Shops in Saint Dunstons Church-yard and in Pauls Alley at the Signe of the Gunne 1621. TO THE HONOR AND VSE OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE THOMAS EARLE of Suffolke Lord of Walden Knight of the Honorable Order of the Garter one of his Maiesties most Honorable Priuy Counsell THis Manual I first consecrate to your Honor. The greatest greatnesse hath no greater honour belonging to it then to bee an Abrech to Persons Books and causes of this nature Such Cedars haue their spreadth and talenesse to shelter such Fowles of the Heauen vnder their shadowe And Faith is content in this vallie of vnbeliefe to receiue defence and countenance where it rather giueth both As Christ in that olde Allegorie of Christopher seemes to be supported by him whome in truth hee supporteth And verely such Bookes as haue life in them giue a longer life to their Patrons then the stateliest Buildings and largest Moniments Principally I Dedicate and Deuote it to your vse Charitie beganne at home I first meditated collected and scribled them for mine owne benefit carryed them about me with Antoninus his title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Notes for my selfe That which with all my might in seeking I haue sought to attaine is the truth and effect of that which many thinges promise but Faith is only able to performe Fulnesse of ioy and constancie of content in the middest of the chaunges wane eclypses and fuls of all externall things and that one day aswell as another throughout the course of a mans life in that latitude and extent whereof this life is capable To cry out I haue found it I haue found it might sauour of vanity and arrogancy Altogether to deny it were an iniurie to the truth of Gods Spirit Word and Grace Such as haue found out Sayling by the Compasse the Art of Printing or should one man discouer a speedier passage to the Indies or meete with a speciall Cordiall in Physicke or any lesse profitable secret should he not iustly be sensured as enuious and iniurious to let such an one die with himselfe What a sacriledge were it then to engrosse such a true Elixar of Spirituall life as vpon some proofe I am sure these prescripts containe The substance therefore of them I imparted first ot my Flocke in Sermons Nextly considering how much I stood obliged to your Lordshippe and what speciall vse you might haue of them I translated and copied them out in the forme wherein now I humbly commend and earnestly recommend them to your serious perusall and thorow triall If vpon both good shall bee thought the better the more communicated others shall accompt themselues beholding to your Honor as the principall occasion of publication More I would say but I feare to spoile the elegancie of Augustine his Preface to Romanian by englishing of it Wherein is the summe of what I would say Whither referring your Lordship I rest and continue as euer I haue done since my reference without intermission publikely and priuatly to pray to the Lord of Lords that you may finde all fauour in the eyes of God and man and that all true happinesse may be multiplyed vpon you and yours in this life and a better Your Lordships in the Lord SAMVEL WARD The Contents of this BOOKE THe Iust shall liue by his Faith Page 1 Christ the Fountaine and Faith the meane of Life 6 The third kind of the Life of Faith page 12 The vse of Faith 16 The first vse of Faith ot new-borne Babes 24 The vse of Faith to young men in Christianity 34 An inforcement of the former vse with a reproofe of the neglect and disuse of Faith 43 The vse of Faith to a growne Christian 51 An obiection answered and passage made to the life of Sanctification 60 How Faith Sanctifies and Mortifies 67 How Faith Viuifies 78 How Faith vpholds life in Affliction 86 An Epistle to the Reader pressing the vse of Faith 100 THE LIFE OF FAITH CHAP. I. The Iust shall liue by his Faith THE basest life excels the best meere being as much as Adam the redde lumpe of earth whereof hee was made The liuing Dog the dead Lyon Betweene life and life what a breadth of difference is there from the Mushrome to the Angels how many kindes of life Yea in one and the same kind how many degrees The bondslaue hath a life as well as the King the sicke man as the whole but such as in comparison may rather bee termed a death One best there is in euery kind as it approcheth neerest to that Fountaine of Life and Being with whom to be and to be most happy is all one Poore Man hath or rather had a certaine pitch and period of happy life consisting in the Image and fauour of his Creator from which hauing once fallen it would pittie one to see how lamely and blindly he reaspires thereunto The most part groaping as the Sodomites after Lots dore the blinde misguiding the blinde in the common Labyrinth of error each one imagining he hath found the way and so tells his dreame to his neighbour for a truth The Couetous when he hath gotté goods as if he had gotten the true Good applaudes his soule as if it were the soule of some Swine Soule thou hast many goods now c. The Voluptuous when he hath satiate himselfe with the huske of pleasure cries out hee hath liued the onely royall and Iouiall life The Ambitious when hee hath climbed the pitch and slipperie hill of Honour builds his nest in the starres thinkes himselfe in the skie and highest sphere of happinesse Alas alas doe not all these know they are in the Chambers of death Dead whilest they are aliue no better then walking ghosts in the shapes of liuing men seeking and placing a spirituall and heauenly Iewell in earthly pelfe in watery Pleasures in ayerie Honours which being all dead cannot affoord that life which they haue not themselues Verily if one liue an hundreth yeeres beget children plant and build and see no other good but such as these the vntimely byrth is better then he What then Is this tree of life not to be recouered no where to be found againe yes doubtlesse though there be many by-pathes there is a Way though many errors there is a Truth though many deathes there is a Life And behold oh man that standest vpon the waies inquiring after life He that is the Way Truth and Life that came from heauen to vanquish death and by his death hath brought thee to life againe who onely hath the words of life Hee hath shewed thee the true way to life Hath he not twise or thrise shewed thee in this liuely Oracle of his The Iust shall liue by Faith Yea but if a man like to our selues might