Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	faith_n	great_a	4,566	5	3.4495	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13262	The arraignment of the Arrian. His beginning. height. fall In a sermon preached at Pauls Crosse, Iune 4. 1624. Being the first Sunday in Trinitie terme. By Humphry Sydenham Mr. of Arts, and fellow of Wadham Colledge in Oxford.	Sydenham, Humphrey, 1591-1650?	1626 (1626)	STC 23559; ESTC S101838	24,628	39

an vnruly fancy that leauing the road and vsuall wayes of truth they run into by-paths of errour and so at length loose both their iudgement and their faith Some haue beene so busie with starres that they haue forgotten him that giues them influence and like curious Lapidaries dally so long with sparkling obiects that they loose the light of that organ which giues life vnto their Art Learning indeed in many is a disease not a perfection a meere surfeit rather vomited than emptied nothing passeth but what is forced and as sometimes with a fit of weaknesse so of pitty A greedy knowledge feeds not our vnderstanding but oppresseth it and like a rauenous appetite chewes more to poison than to nourishment Were I to drinke freely of what is sacred I should desire that which flowes not that which is pumped for waters that are troubled yeeld mud and are oftentimes aswell the bane of the receiuer as the comfort A Pioner or bold myner which digs on too farre for his rich veine of Ore meets with a dampe which choakes him and we may finde some dispositions rather desperate than venturous knowne more by a heady resolution than a wise cautelousnesse whom we may resemble to that silly and storme-tost Seaman who diued so long for a piece of his shipwrackt treasure that either want of aire or ponderousnesse of water depriued him at once of life and fortune Arrius hath been so long conuersant in the schoole of Philosophy that he forgets hee is a Priest and now makes that the Mistresse of Diuinity which was before the handmaid S. Augustine therefore in his Oration ad Catechum expostulates with the hereticke and by way of Prosopopeta doth catechize him thus Credis in Deum patrem omnipotentem Dost thou beleeue in God the father Almighty in his sonne Iesus Christ our Lord I beleeue thou sayest here then thou art mine against the Pagan and the Mahometan Dost thou beleeue that the God and man Christ Iesus was conceiued of the holy Ghost and borne of the Virgin Mary I beleeue thou art yet with me against Photinus and the Iew. Dost thou beleeue the father to be one person and the sonne another yet father and sonne but one God and this also here thou art mine too against the Sabellian Age si mecum es in omnibus quare litigamus saith the Father if wee are one in all these why contend we Let there be no strife betweene thee and me for we are brethren But it will fall out here anon as betweene Lot and Abraham by reason of our substance we cannot dwell together wee must part anon Tell me then how is the sonne equall to the father in operation or beginning in power or eternity or both In operation and power the heretique allowes but not eternitie for how can that which was begotten be equall to that which was not begotten Yes eternitie and greatnesse and power in God sound one for he is not great in one thing and God in another but in this great that hee is God be cause his greatnesse is the same with his power and his essence with his greatnesse Seeing then the sonne is coequall in respect of power he must be coeternall too in respect of euerlastingnesse Here the Arrian is on fire and nothing can allay or quench these flames but that which giues them an vntimely foment Reason To proue a principle in nature is both troublesome and difficult but in religion without the assent of faith impossible In matters of reason it is first discourse then resolue but in these of religion first beleeue and the effect will follow whether for confession of the truth or conuiction of errour or both The greatest miracles our Sauiour did in way of cure or restauration was with a si credas and that to the liuing and the dead and betweene those the sicke To the Centurion for his seruant with a sicut credis As thou beleeuest so be it vnto thee Matth. 8.5 To the Ruler of the Synagogue for his daughter with a Crede too Feare not but beleeue Mar. 5.36 To all that are dumbe or blinde or lame in mysteries of Diuinity as to those dumbe or blinde or lame in bodie with a Vtrum creditis Doe you beleeue these things then your faith hath made you whole Matth. 9.28 but if wee meet with vnweildy dispositions such as are not onely vntractable but opposite to the waies of faith we shall rather drag than inuite them to beliefe howeuer the Father labours here by a powerfull perswasion and where hee failes in the strength of proofe he makes it out by way of allusion which he illustrates by a similitude of fire light which are distinct things one proceeds from another neither can the one be possibly without the other the father he resembles to the fire the sonne to the light and endeauours to deriue it though obliquely somewhat from sacred storie in Deut. 4.24 God is called a fire Thy God is a consuming fire in Psal 8. Christ the light Thy word is a light vnto my steps With this double stone he batters the forehead both of the Sabellian and the Arrian first of the Sabellian for here are two in one fire and light yet two still not one why not so with Sonne and Father The Arrian next for here also is one borne of another yet the one not possibly to be borne without the other neither of them first and last fire and light coequall Father and Sonne so too The similitude iarres onely in this those are temporarie and these eternall pater ergo filius vnum sunt saith the Father Sunt dico quia pater filius vnum quia Deus dualitas in prole vnitas in deitate cum dico filius alter est cum dico Deus vnus est cont 5. host genera cap. 7. What more obuious and trodden to the thinnest knowledge than that there is here alius and alias but not aliud as in bels of equal magnitude and dimension pardon the lownesse of the similitude which though framed out of the same masse and Art where the substance and workmanship are one yet the sound is diuers for though of Sonne and Father the substance be one as God yet the appellation and sound is diuers as Sonne and Father The Heretique either impatient of this truth or ignorant once more makes reason his vmpire but how sinisterly how iniuriously that which should be the mistresse of our sence and the Sterne and arbitresse of all our actions must now be a promotresse and baud to error It is bold expostulation that runnes vs on these shelues of danger and hath been the often wracke of many a blooming and hopefull truth There are errours besides these desperate of will of vnderstanding which sometimes are rather voluntary than deliberatiue and ballaced more by the suggestions of a weake fancy than any strength of iudgement If our thoughts still lie at Hull in those shallowes of

insinuari cius verbum And of this God and the Word the very Philosophers were not ignorant for wee meet with a Hermes and a Zenon stiling the maker orderer of the Vniuerse 〈◊〉 The Word which they inlarge with other attributes of Fate necessity God what sauours a little of a heathenish relique Animū Iouis taking Iupiter in the sence that they doe God as Lactantius in his 4. booke de vera Sapient cap. 9. But why doe we rob them of their maiden honour and take their sayings vpon Tradition meerly let them speake themselues in their peculiar and mother-tongue Numenius a famous Pythagorian one who twixt Plato and Moses put no difference but of Language calling Plato Mosen Attica Lingua Loquentem Moses speaking the Atticke Dialect Deus primus saith he in scipso quidem existens est simplex propterea quòd secum semper est nunquam diuisus Secundus tertius est vnus The first God is alwaies existent in himselfe simple indiuisible the second and third one and a little after he calls this first God Creautis Dei patrem The father of the creating God Had they all adored what he here acknowledged a Trinity in vnity so to be worshipped I should then propose their precept not onely to be embraced but their practice to be imitated Search on and loe that rich mine of Truth is not yet at her drosse or bottome for Heraclitus next one who was wont to call S. Iohn Barbarian that Euangelist to whom belonged the Eagle as well for sublimity of Stile as Contemplation he censet verbum Dei in ordine Principij atque dignitate constitutum apud Deum esse Deum esse in quo quicquid factum sit fuerit viuens vita ens tum in corpora Lapsum carnemque indutum hominem apparuisse ostendens etiam tunc naturae suae magnitudinem Harke how the Frog chaunts like the Nightingale It is Maximilians Ethnici audiendi non tanquam Philomelae sed Ranae and curiously counterfeits her in euery straine How closely this obscure Heathen followes not onely the Gospels truth but the phrase too In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and was God all things were made by him euery liuing Creature life and thing then this Word was made flesh and appeared man euen then shewed the glory of his nature How sweetly he warbles with his Barbarian as if by an easie labour of Translation hee had bereft him both of Truth and Eloquence I maruaile not now at that Testimony of Basil the Great vpon those words In principio erat verbum Hoc ego noui multos etiam extra veritatis rationem positos I haue knowne many saith he and those put without the pale and list of diuine Truth men meerely secular aduancing and magnifying this peece of Scripture and at length bold to mixe it with their owne decrees and writings And S. Augustine seconds it with an instance Quidam Platonicus A certaine Platonist was wont to say that the beginning of S. Iohns Gospell was worthy to be written in letters of gold and preached in the most eminent Churches and Congregations in his 10 book de Ciuitate Dei c. 29. O the diuine raptures and infusions that God doth sometimes betroth to his very enemies who can but conceiue that as the very worst of men haue knowledge enough to make them inexcusable so the best of Heathen had enough to make them Saints were their faith that he should be their Sauiour as great as their knowledge that he was the Sonne of God With what rich Epithites they bedecke and crowne him Mentis Germen Verbum Lucens Dei Filius it is his saying who I know not by what search found out almost all Truth Mercurius Trismegistus the mindes blossome the word that gaue light the sonne of God What else did S. Iohn adde but that the word was light And S. Augustine giues this farther testimony of that heathen that he spake many things of Christ in a propheticke manner eadem veritate licet non eodem Animi affectu with the same truth the Prophets did but not with the same affection pronunciabat illa Hermes Dolendo pronunciabat hac Propheta Gaudendo in his 8. booke de Ciuitate Dei 23. chapter And why should we batre some of their Philosophers of a propheticke knowledge when a Poet shall fill his cheekes with a Chara Deum Soboles Magnum Iouis incrementum And if wee looke backe to those Oracles of old the Sybills sacred Raptures we shall finde them more like a Christians Comment than a Heathens Prediction Tunc ad mortales veniet mortalibus ipsis In terris similis natus Patris omnipotentis Corpore vestitus Whereof if we enquire a little into the originall Saint Augustine In oration contra Arrian will tell vs that the Greeke coppies giue vs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iesus Christ the Sonne of God the Sauiour and it is not onely probable but euident that the Gentiles had a knowledge of Christ as he was the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as it appeareth by that of Serapis vnto Thulis King of Egypt And it is strangely remarkeable what wonderfull Titles and inscriptions the Platonists dedicate to his name and memory with which as with a wreath and Lawrell they girt beautifie his Temples Dei verbum Mundi Opifex Idaea boni Mundi Archetypum moderat or Distributor Imago primi entis rationalis Creaturae exemplar Pastor Sacerdos vlna humens Lux Sol coelumque candens mentis germen Diuinae verbum Lucidum filius primogenitus primi dei semper viuentis vmbra vita splendor virtus candor lucis character substantiae cius and the like which could not but flow from a heart diuinely toucht and a tongue swolne with inspiration as Rosselus tels vs in his Trismegisti Pimandrum 1 booke 107 page For these and the like sayings some of the ancient Fathers haue coniectured that Plato either read part of diuine story or whilst he trauelled in Egypt had a taste of sacred truth out of the sayings of the Hebrewes by an Amanuensis or interpreter For then many of the Hebrewes the Persians reigning wandered in Egypt Moreouer Aristobulus the Iew who flourished in the time of the Machabees writing to Ptolomy Philometora King of Egypt reports that the Pentateuch before the Empire of Alexander the Great and the Persian Monarchie was Translated out of Hebrew into Greeke part whereof came to the hands of Plato and Pythagoras and he is after peremptory that the Peripateticks out of the bookes of Moses and the writings of the Prophets drew the greatest part of their Philosophy and it may seeme strange what the Iewish Antiquary traditions of Clearchus the most noble of that Sect who in his first De somno brings in his Master Aristotle relating that he met with a certaine Iew a reuerent and a wise man with whom he had much conference concerning matters both naturall diuine and receiued from him such a hint and specialty of choicer learning which did much improue him in his after knowledge especially in that of God as Iosephus lib. 1. contra Appionem Eusebius in his 11 de praeparat Euangelica c. 6. Clement Alexandrin 5. Stromaton And thus I haue at length though with some blood and difficultie trauersed the opinions of the ancient and shewed you the errours of primitiue Times in their foulest shapes I haue opened the wiles and stratagems of the aduersary and how defeated by the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof what Bulwarkes and Rampires the Fathers raised for propugning of Christs diuinitie and how besieged by cursed herefies with what successe what ruine Let vs now returne where we began and place Christ where we found him before Abraham before the world where me thinkes he now stands like a well rooted tree in rough storme where though winds blow on him so furiously that he is sometimes forced to the earth as if he were meerely humane yet he bends againe and nods towards heauen to shew that hee is diuine and but a plant taken thence grafted in our Eden here where though tost vp and downe with blasts of Infidelity yet when the enuy of their breath is spent as we see a goodly Cedar after a tempest he stands strait vn-rent as if he scorned the shocke of his late churlish encounter and dared his blustring Aduersary to a second opposition Gloria in excelfis Deo FINIS