Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	church_n	tradition_n	2,130	5	9.1915	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93124	Two sermons preached in St. Maries Church in Cambridge. By Robert Sheringham, Master of Arts, and Fellow of Gunvil and Caius Colledge.	Sheringham, Robert, 1602-1678.	1645 (1645)	Wing S3239; Thomason E285_1; ESTC R200065	41,774	103

doubts and scruples The eye cannot discern an object though present except there be light to make it visible and although the articles of faith be sufficiently presented to the vnderstanding by supernaturall revelation yet if there be not a supernaturall light too to make the truth evident the wound of Ignorance cannot be healed Naturall Reason is too weak to enlighten the soule sufficiently for as Noah's dove could find no rest in the air for the sole of her foot so when the vnderstanding enters into contemplation of supernaturall truths as in the thin and subtile air it can find nothing to rest on or as Saint Peter had sunk when hee walked upon the sea Matth. 14.30 31. if our Saviour Christ had not upholden him with his hands so the vnderstanding sinks when it walks upon the deep ocean of supernaturall truths if it be not upholden by divine assistance And yet as Reason may move the affections in order to supernaturall goodnesse but cannot heal their infirmity so it can likewise enlighten the vnderstanding in order to supernaturall truths but cannot heal its ignorance The light of Reason may make supernaturall truths so evident to the vnderstanding that a man may think his faith perfect in all respects and yet it may be perfect in nothing The ancient Fathers of the Church in their Apologies for Christian religion alledge many reasons which may make a naturall man beleeve the articles of our Christian faith The miracles which were wrought by the Apostles have given their doctrine such authority that a naturall man cannot but assent unto it unlesse his vnderstanding be carried away by some private respect and interest of his own And hee that hath this assent may think his understanding is enlightened and healed sufficiently but hee deceives himself like the Syrians which thought they had been in the way to the Prophet 2 King 6.20 when they were in the midst of Samaria or like Sauls messengers 1 Sam. 19.16 which thought they had found David when they found but an image in his place For this faith that springs from naturall Reason is but imago simulacrum fidei the image and representation of true faith it is like it in shew but differeth much from it in essence For there are two properties essentiall to true faith which nothing but the light of grace can work in the soul The first is certainty Nothing but the light of grace can work in us such a certainty as is essentiall to true faith Hee that beleeves a thing certainly must have some infallible motive cui falsum subesse non potest in which there can be no errour or delusion for an uncertaine motive can give a man no assurance of that which he beleeves Certainty of faith alwayes supposeth a certain and infallible motive upon which it is built Now concerning the articles of our faith nothing but the light of grace can give us an infallible motive of their truth for many of them being above Reason cannot by the light of Reason be made evident But some perhaps will say A naturall man by the light of Reason may beleeve the Scriptures to be true and to be the word of God and so may have an infallible motive For hee that beleeves the articles of faith because they are grounded upon the authority of Gods word hath a sure and certain motive of their truth it being impossible that any falshood should proceed from God To this I answer Although a naturall man may beleeve the Scriptures to be true and to be the word of God yet his faith concerning this matter is but an historicall kind of faith and is grounded upon deceitfull and uncertain motives and therefore though the Scriptures be an infallible motive to those that have certaine grounds to beleeve them to be true and to be the word of God yet they can be no infallible motive to him that hath not such grounds for they that are not sure that the Scriptures are true and that they are the word of God cannot be sure that any thing is true which they prove from them Now a naturall man cannot from the light of Reason have any other but uncertain and deceitfull grounds concerning the truth of Scripture for hee beleeves them to be true and to be the word of God either from the tradition of the Church from the miracles which were wrought by the Apostles or from some other humane motive in which although there be great probability yet there can be no infallibility Such grounds as these can give him no such assurance as excludes all possibility of deceit he hath but an historicall faith of the truth of Scripture and so can have but an historicall certainty But the light of grace shewes us infallibly the truth of Scripture it gives us an experimentall knowledge of it and makes us as it were to see it with our eyes so that there is as great a difference between the faith that a man hath from the light of Reason and that which hee hath afterward from the light of grace as there was between the faith which the Samaritans had of our Saviour Christ from the speech of the woman and that which they had afterwards when they saw him with their eyes The second property essentiall to true faith which nothing but the light of grace can work in the soul is a pious affection to faith and to all the truths which it reveales nothing but the light of grace can work this pious affection in us The light of Reason although it cannot make all truths evident that are to be beleeved yet as I said before there are many truths that may be discovered by it namely such as are of the law of nature but then it cannot like grace work a pious affection in the soul towards them The Divell sees many excellent truths by the naturall light of his understanding hee sees that God is infinitely good and infinitely wise and infinitely just and infinitely mercifull and infinitely happy but hee can have no affection to these truths hee sees them all in lumine coacto in a forced and compelled light and not in lumine jucundo in a delightfull and pleasant light A theefe may know by the light of reason that theft is an unjust act or an adulterer that adultery is unlawfull but they can have no affection to these truths their faith is like the Divels they beleeve them by the force and compulsion of Reason and not with delight and pleasure But the light of grace doth not onely make truth evident but it produceth also in the soul a pious affection towards that truth it makes a man to be in love with it and to delight in it I have had as great delight in the way of thy testimonies as in all manner of riches saith David Psal 119.14 And so say all they whose understandings are enlightned by grace He that hath the light of reason can delight onely in such