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	faith_n	speak_v	2,156	5	4.5953	4	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

and that David desired to have healed was his soul the principall and most excellent part of a man The Pelagians affirme that sin can no way wound the soul for being a bare privation it cannot have say they a positive and naturall act An errour directly opposite to my text De natura gratia cap. 19. Quid sanatur si nihil est vulneratum nihil sauciatum nihil debilitatum atque vitiatum Why doth David desire to have his soule healed if nothing in it were wounded nothing debilitated nothing corrupted it is S. Augustines inference out of these words The Polagians then were full of vain presumption or else David was full of vain fears But Davids fears were just and he spake these words out of experience and a deep sense of his own miseries For if wee descend into particulars wee shall see his soule had many wounds it had some as old as it selfe his soule was wounded as soon as it was created God gave him life and sin death at the same instant for David together with all mankind sinned in our first parents and was wounded in his soule by that originall sinne which hee derived from them Behold saith hee I was shapen in wickednesse and in sin did my mother conceive mee Psal 51.5 Here was a sin and therefore a wound at his first conception Apol. David lib. 1. cap. 11. Contra Julianum l. 6. cap. 7. S. Ambrose calls it naturale contagium a naturall contagion S. Augustine morbum languorem naturae the disease and languishment of nature And this wound was deep enough had he had no other for originall sin hath not onely wounded the soule but it hath wounded all her powers and faculties First it hath wounded the affections for whilest man stood in the integrity of his nature all his affections were regulated and governed by reason the superiour faculties of the soule exercised a kind of regall authority and jurisdiction over the inferiour and the inferiour did inviolably performe those duties that were required of them Man was like a perfect Common-wealth like Jerusalem that was built as a city that is at unity with it selfe but sin hath now so wounded the affections that they are no longer enclined or naturally able to execute the decrees of reason but as a ship is carried up and downe by the violence of the waves in a tempest at sea so a man is carried by the violence of his owne affections hee is driven by them as by strong and impetuous windes upon many rocks Now the inferiour faculties of the soule resist the superiour the affections like seditious Tribunes being alwayes ready to stir up commotions I see another law in my members saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 warring against the law of my mind Rom. 7.23 The affections are at warre with reason and force it oftentimes to stoop to their unreasonable and unjust commands This is the first wound of the soule which is called imbecilitas naturalis infirmitas imbecility and naturall infirmity Secondly It hath wounded the vnderstanding for the vnderstanding did naturally apprehend truth without difficulty and as the eye looketh upon a beautifull object so the vnderstanding looked upon truth with delight and pleasure and the more excellent and eminent the truths were the greater pleasure had the vnderstanding in the contemplation of them It was not subject to be deluded by the false insinuations of any affection but could upon deliberation clearly discern all naturall truths and as for those truths that were supernaturall and above its capacity as many of them as were necessary to be known were infused or revealed by God when he first created it But sin hath likewise so wounded the vnderstanding as it can hardly apprehend its first principles without difficulty Now reason like Achitophel takes part with rebellious Absolom the corrupt affections and is apt to represent things to the will not as they are in themselves but as the affections please Now the vnderstanding is filled with ignorance and obscurity and hath lost that knowledge that was revealed to our first parents and which should likewise have beene revealed to all their posterity together with the light whereby it was able to judge and discern supernaturall truths So that there is a double ignorance in the vnderstanding arising from a double defect and want in the soul The first kind of ignorance ariseth from want of sufficient revelation for naturally the vnderstanding cannot know the articles of faith God hath given to every thing a certain circuit and determinate sphere of activity beyond which it cannot passe as fire can heate to a determinate distance but cannot passe beyond that distance The vnderstanding hath a sphere of activity too it hath a naturall sufficiency to understand some truths such as are of the law of nature and such as it can come unto by the knowledge of the senses but cannot passe beyond them to those that are supernaturall The second kind of ignorance ariseth from want of evidence after sufficient revelation and is alwayes joyned with falshood or doubt Falshood ariseth from deception when the vnderstanding apprehends errour for truth in things speculative or in things practicall when it apprehends that goodnesse to be in some actions which is not and in others that goodnesse to be wanting which is in them Doubt ariseth from irresolution I speak not now of irresolution in matters of action which belong properly to the will but of irresolution in matters of judgement which belong to the vnderstanding for there is an irresolution in the will and an irresolution in the vnderstanding as a Judge sometimes knowes the law and yet suspends judgement out of partiality and affection and this is called suspensio facti a suspension of fact and sometimes when reasons are equall on both sides hee knowes not to whom the lawes incline and so suspends judgement for want of evidence and this is called suspensio juris a suspension of right So it is likewise in the soul sometimes a man knows what hee ought to doe but yet out of particular and private respects resolves upon nothing here the suspense is in the will and is answerable to that which in a Judge is called suspensio facti and sometimes when arguments are equall on both sides hee knowes not what to resolve upon for want of evidence here the suspence is in the vnderstanding and is answerable to that which in a Judge is called suspensio juris In the first case there is a conflict of severall desires in the last a conflict of severall thoughts And from this kind of irresolution proceed all doubts and scruples in matters of conscience which although they be not joyned with falshood because the vnderstanding hath made no conclusion yet they are alwayes joyned with ignorance And this is the second wound of the soule which is called Ignorantia coecitas mentis ignorance and blindnesse of mind Thirdly It hath wounded the will