that doth Charity Charity joynes us close to God unites us as it were and makes us one thing with him fixes upon God as God is in himselfe which neither Faith nor Hope in this life can doe For Faith fixes upon God indeed but as he is under the vaile of Revelation There lyes a cloud betwixt the eye of Faith and her Maker Hope fixed upon God as upon a thing at distance a thing that will be enjoyed heâ—caâ—er but is not yet There lyes an Intervallum a kind of long reach betwixt Hope and the object of it while we hope we have not yet attained But love fixeth immediately and totally and â—nâ—eâ—arably upon her object In my love God is present to me and with me and in me He in me and I in him and I am as it were in the joyes of Heaven already while I am in the act of love it twines about and imbraces and â—eaâ—es and unites us together with what wee love never to bee severed from it No wonder therefore that God and Charity are so nearely afsianced that one beareth the name of the other And much lesse wonder that Charity should be the greatest vertue drawing nearer to God then any perfection whatsoever Charity it is that makes us rightly Sonnes of God saith Haymo Sonnes of his love as God the Father of ours nay makes us as it were demy-Gods upon earth Light of Light Spirit of Spirit partakers in a manner of the divine nature saith St. Peter yea by the happy Incarnation of Christ Bone of his bone Flesh of his flesh the very Mysticall members of his Body saith Saint Paul For we are members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bone All this Charity makes us What Grace or Vertue in the World therefore to compare with Charity Yes Faith you will say justifies us and onely Faith If onely Faith then not Charity And Faith is as it were the hand that layes hold of our salvation It is our Armour our Shield against all temptations the Shield of Faith Saint Paul calls it It is our victory whereby wee overcome the world Haecest victoria saith St. Iohn even even your faith It is that which first adopts us Sonnes of God by which wee are Regenerated For Faith is the beginning of all acceptance the Baptisme of Baptisme it selfe without which it is impossible to please God saith the Apostle Moreover Faith is the foundation of Charity the very cause and roote of Love Adde to this that Faith is in the understanding part which is the more nobleâ— but Charity in the will and affections which are more ignoble And therefore in all these respects Faith may doe well to challenge place of Charity at least march even with it not come behind it in so unseemely ranke as it were the Mother behind the Daughter To all which Objections the Commentators frame diverse answers To goe backward with them Whereas it is alleadged Charity is in the affective part the VVill which is the more ignoble but Faith in the intellectuall part viz. the understanding which is more excellent Aquinas answers well that the understanding is indeed more excellent then the VVill because it inlightens and directs the will but yet it followes not for all that but that the will may have a more excellent perfection belonging to it then any the understanding can have To which purpose note that things are in the understanding in a spirituall and resined way but the VVill fixes upon things as they are in themselves Consequently earthly things sensible objects are in a more excellent way in our understanding then they are in their owne natures saith Saint Austine but Divine and Heavenly things are more excellently in their owne nature then they are in our understandings Whereupon it followes that the knowledge of earthly matters and things below us is better then the love of them as the knowledge of pleasure and honour and riches better then the love of these things c. but the love of Heavenly matters and things above us is better then the knowledge So then Faith and Charity being about the most excellent of heavenly things viz. God himselfe it followes Charity which containes the love of God must needs be better then Faith which containes the knowledge of him onely To the next that Faith is the Mother of Charity It is true and yet Charity may be Proles major parente a Daughter greater then the Mother As the fruite is more excellent then the bough that beares it and as the House excells the foundation so doth Charity excell Faith Faith is the beginning of all acceptance it is right and that which first initiates us to bee Sonnes of God But not Faith without love that is certaine For in our Baptisine wee not onely professe our Faith but enter into Covenant with God that wee will forsake the Devill and keepe his Commandements That is Charity and never are wee Sonnes indeed till we love our Faither Faith is the shield of a Christian against temptations we grant it Put Charity is the very arme that beares this shield when Love is once planted in the Soule it moves and commands all other powers And Faith is the hand that layes hold of Christ but Charity is the very heart that gives life to this hand As for the point of Iustification that requires some more exact decision let us heare therefore learned Divines of both sides discusse that Faith onely justifies ergo not Charity Stay there saith Genevensis the Adverb onely may sometimes meane principally as onely vertue is true nobility it excludes not other kinds of nobility but onely puts them behind One thing have I desired of the Lord saith David one thing above other though many other besides Against thee onely have I sinned saith the same Prophet that is against thee principally though he sinned also against Bâ—hshabe and Vrâ—ah as well as God So Faith onely justifies that is Faith principally rather Faith then Charity because Faith goes before Charity in our Justification though Charity comes after and justifies more perfectly Yee may perceive by the sound of his Doctrine of what straine this man is Saint Paul saith plainely By saith we are justified and not by the workes of the Law that is not by Charity for what is Charity but keeping the Law And this man saith yes by the worke of the Law and by Faith both is not this plainely to give the Apostle the lye Much better answers Calvine Faith though it bee lesse then Charity in most regards yet in some respects it may be greater As a more ignoble matter may be fitter for some uses then a more precious Gold is better then Iron and yet to make a weapon of Iron is better then Gold A King is better then a Mariner and yet to guide a Ship a Marriner is better then a King A man is better then a House and yet to run a Race a Horse is better then a man Thus though
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
their number they are three Secondly their continuance they abide Thirdly the extent of their continuance how long they abide and that is nunc during the state of this present life Now they abide Faith Hope and Charitie these three These three first that points to their number and it gives us to note first saith Cajetane that they are not all one and the same vertue and therefore would not rashly be confounded Some upon the former words of the Apostle at the seventh verse of this Chapter Charitie beleeveth all things hopeth all things endureth all things are ready to conclude that these three vertues grow at last into one and all shut up in Charitie for as much as beleeving is the act of faith and yet the Apostle saith Charitie beleeveth all things and expecting the act of Hope and yet hee saith Charitie hopeth all things It should seeme therefore if charitie execute the acts of faith and hope that faith and hope are at length confounded with charitie But it is not so the Apostle tels us they are three still and they remaine three though charitie at length get the prâ—heminâ—ncâ— and command the acts of both the other Three they are then and only three as no lesse so no more no more vertues truly called Theologicall or Divine but these that is vertues which fix upon God as their immediate object No why is there not the Feare of God and Pietic and Zeale and Invocation and Confession And what is the immediate object of these but God Right saith Aquinas Other vertues may fix upon God too but it is mediantibusâ—stis by the mediation of these All other divine vertues doe but manifest our Faith Hope and Charity or put them in execution Only Faith Hope and Charity joyne us immediately to God other graces joyne us to him by the meanes of these As for example What is Invocation and Prayer to God but an effect of our Faith and therefore unites us to the Almightie because it is made in faith so faith comes between prayer and God What is the feare of God if it be a chaste and filiall feare but the fruit of our love Wee cannot love God dearly but wee must needs feare to lose his favour And if it be only a servile fear then it is the fruit of our faith wee feare the power and vengeance of God because we beleeve him to be Almighty What else are Zeale and Piety but fruits of our Charity likewise Wee obey God we are zealous for him Why but because wee love him so love comes between zeale God Patience long suffering what are they but effects of our hope Therfore we are patient because we wait hope for Gods help so hope comes between patience and God These 3 then only these 3 Faith Hope Charitie are called vertues Theological or truly divine because they fix immediately wholly upon God all other vertues but in through these God is the measure saith Cajetane the Formalis ratio the entiâ—e object of saith sith what ever truth we beleeve by faith we beleeve only for Gods sake because wee beleeve God hath revealed it What ever blessings we embrace by divine hope it is for Gods cause too who hath made us promises in his word to build our hope upon who himselfe is hoped for as the true fountaine of our blisse What ever good we fix upon by our Charitie it is for Gods sake also God is the thing we love above all all things else but for under God So that these three none but these are the three vertues properly and immediately divine subordinate to no other But are they not also subordinate among themselves Yes that they are And that makes such a coÌ„nexion between them that where one abides they abide all together that abiding is the next point of our division next after their number their continuance Now abide these three Abide how why united and joyned together as I told you so that where one of them is there must needs be the other And abide that is uninterruptedly continually as long as wee abide Christians wee cannot bee in the favour of God without all of them First united they abide where one is there is the other Where Charitie is there must needs bee Hope for Hope is the ground of love we cannot love unlesse wee hope to partake some good by what we love And where Hope is there must needs bee Faith expect any blessing we cannot unlesse wee first beleeve the goodnesse of that we hope for a blessing from So that Charitie infers the rest yea and so doth faith also For though it bee true there is Fides historica a bare historicall Faith such an one as the Devils beleeve and tremble by as St. Iames hath it a Faith without Love yet that is not the lively and justifying faith true saving faith can be no more without love than the body can be without life it is a dead faith that lives not by charitie and if saving faith include charitie it must needs draw in hope too For no charitie can be unlesse it be founded in hope as yee have heard already so that take one of these and take all where one abide all abide where one is wanting all are wanting No marvell therefore the Apostle saith now abide these three that is these three altogether Take any one away and the other fall to the ground And as they are thus necessarie one to another so they are assistant and helpfull each to the other Faith assistant to Hope and Hope to Charitie and Charitie to both and everie of them to one another For he that beleeves in God saith Haymo hopes also for those things which he finds promised from God and the more he hopes the stronger he beleeves and beleeving and hoping things so excellent he cannot choose but love The more hee hopes the more he delights in his hope the more hee delights the more hee must needs love for delight cherisheth love as love still begets more delight Hence is it that faith it selfe cannot stand unlesse the delight of hope strengthen it and support it that it may not bee wearie of beleeving Nor can hope it selfe subsist unlesse it bee grounded in faith as it were an anchor upon a rock nor can the rock long hold the anchor nor the anchor cleave to the rock unlesse Charitie like a strong cable fasten and pull both together so that each of these help one another to abide and abide any one or two cannot well if the third be wanting Thus you see their 〈◊〉 nexion in abiding Next there followes their continuance in abiding and that yee may observe in the Adverb Nunc the next point of our division Now they abide that is during the state of our Christianitie or if yee will of our mortalitie During the state of our Christianitie they are so necessarie that none can bee a moment without them and abide in Gods
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