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	life_n	4,645	5	4.9113	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29333	Faith in the just victorious over the world a sermon preached at the Savoy in the French Church, on Sunday Octob. 10, 1669 / by D. Brevall ... ; translated into English by Dr. Du-Moulin ...; Foy victorieuse du monde dans les justes. English	Bréval, Monsieur de (François Durant), d. 1707.; Du Moulin, Peter, 1601-1684.	1670 (1670)	Wing B4402; ESTC R2130	23,314	40

ought to live it is not then this kind of Faith that our Text so highly praiseth as to say It is the victory that overcometh the World it must be a generous and warlike Faith and not a base cowardly dejected Faith which hath no courage neither to undertake nor to maintain any thing Scripture and Divinity tell us of another kind of Faith quite opposite they call it a lively Faith perfect or formed which besides that it at first convinceth the understanding by the Authorities of revealed Truths perswades the will to approve them by Sentiments conformable to such holy motions it is what JESUS CHRIST said of St. John Baptist A burning and a shining Lamp shining because it brings light and knowledge to the mind burning because it brings fire and piety to the heart Of that the Prophet Habakkuk saith The just shall live by Faith that is by reason of his Faith as St. Paul expounds it Rom. 1.17 and the same Apostle speaks again of it in the Chapters following and particularly in Chap 3. ver 28. where he saith It is the sense of all Christians that man is justified by Faith without the works of Moses his Law He sayes as much of it almost in the same words in the beginning of the fifth Chapter and in divers other places of the same Epistle and in all his other Epistles St. Peter sayes no less of it when he assures the Gentiles Acts 19. that God had purified their hearts by Faith And in his 1 Epist 1.8 You are preserved saith he by the means of Faith to be heirs of Salvation which is the reward of Faith as he sayes presently after ver 9. and certainly it is that which the Apostle St. Jude in his Catholique Epistle ver 20. calls most holy not only because it is the formal holiness of the Soul but because that as Divines expound it it fulfilleth all duties of holiness by an entire obedience to the Ordinances and Commands of God which gives occasion to Divines to call it sometimes an obedient Faith and certainly it is of this Faith that our Text speaketh when it saith that the victory that overcometh the World is Faith It is not therefore enough Christians to shew you that all that is born of God overcometh the World and that it is by Faith it overcometh it is needful that I tell you moreover by what Faith for we are not without enemies that accuse us of giving to Faith alone without joining it with other vertues this victorious power And indeed there are too many souls among us either libertine enough or ill enough instructed to perswade themselves that there needs nothing but believing to overcome all and to be saved if they had not such thoughts assuredly we should see them live better for it is impossible to lead so ill a life if they did believe that they must lead a better if they will be saved Let our Enemies and our Libertines and our Ignorants learn then this day what we think and what we ought to think of Faith which justifies or as our Text speaks which overcometh the World The true Sentiment of all Reformed Churches is that this Faith is not only a naked and barren belief which acknowledgeth and confesseth only the truth of our mysteries without troubling ones self to practise that piety which these mysteries require but they all teach us that this Faith is accompanied with all the holiness which the Gospel enjoyns us so that Faith according to our Doctrine is uncapable to justifie us and to overcome the World if Charity be not with it and it is in vain that I believe in JESUS CHRIST if I love him not and if I do not that which his Gospel ordaineth me to do Thus when we say with the Scripture That Faith justifies that it cleanseth the hearts that it overcometh the World we speak not but of a Faith that is loving patient humble and holy in all respects it is after this manner that all the Fathers speak of it and St. John himself in the Text as it is evident in the verses that go before and that follow For though he saith absolutely That those who believe that JESUS CHRIST is the Son of God overcome the World yet he speaks before and after of Charity and of keeping Gods Commandments as things inseparably linked with this victorious Faith You see then Christians what that Faith is which overcometh the World in the just it is that impenetrable Buckler that St. Paul speaketh of that beats back all the blows which the Enemy aims at us A man armed with this Faith may say with the Apostle That what temptation soever he shall endure no assaults shall separate him from the love of JESUS CHRIST Nothing shall debauch him from his duty nothing shall make him the slave of sin let the World come with all its Forces with all the sweets of Pleasure with all the corruptions of Interest with all the pom●s of Ambition it will make but vain Enterprises unsuccessful Assaults upon a man armed with this warlike and generous Faith for what can pleasure say to him able to corrupt him if she promiseth to his body all she hath of tender and sweet what will the Just do in this rough assault where he hath all pleasures to fight against He will oppose his Faith I believe in that God will he say who would not live but in pennance while he lived amongst us alwayes severe to his flesh alwayes mortified in his mind never in pleasure and almost continually in grief who found in the bitterness of his death nothing but Gall and Vinegar to sweeten it What! shall I believe these things and in the mean time abandon my self to those guilty pleasures No I will not The assaults of Interest need no less resolution and resistance they sollicit the faithful Soul with all the perswasions that Gold and Silver are able to make in this World being pressed by this assault what doth he He takes his ordinary shield he opposeth his Faith O! saith he I believe that God made himself poor to make me rich that he would not possess any thing on earth that at his birth he had nothing but straw to lie upon that during his life he had nothing whereon to lay his head that at his death he was naked And shall I to make my self rich do this injustice shall I suffer my self to be corrupted by my Interest No I will not Neither shall Ambition have any more advantage over the faithful Soul how violently soever it assaults him Methinks I see Ambition with her glistering and her pomps tempting the heart of the Just flattering him with all her splendor and grandeur which use to dazle others what will he do in this assault that which he did in the former He will take Faith and oppose it against this Enemy that presseth him What! saith he that God in whom I believe who abased himself so far as to become man did humble himself to the meanest things ev'n to death to the most shameful and infamous death And shall I advance my self by the diminution of his glory shall I drive on my fortune as far as vanity will entice me No I will not it shall never be said that my life hath bely'd my Faith I believe there are eternal Rewards to crown all my fidelity if I sink not under these Temptations that the World leads me in o I believe there are everlasting pains to punish my baseness if I do sink under them What then should I be so far out of my wits and besides my senses as to resolve to do it No the World must stay till I believe these things no more Thus it is Brethren that Faith speaks thus it is that she fights thus it is that she triumphs when she is right when Faith is as it ought to be animated with the Spirit of all vertues and when we are satisfied by the effects that we have this Faith We have it not Christians when we yield so easily to the first sollicitations of Pleasure of Interest and of Ambition Alas how can your Faith be victorious over the World while you are still Slaves to Passion which is the World it self and whil'st you observe the Laws and Maxims of the World more religiously than those of God The Faith that is victorious over the World confesseth JESUS CHRIST on all occasions loves him at all times and serves and follows him through all things in good earnest Christians do you do so Alas how easily may it be seen with never so little reflection on our selves that we have not this Faith since within us all is full of Revolts Ingratitudes and Infidelities towards CHRIST whom we crucifie and defame daily as St. Paul reproacheth in the sixth of the Epistle to the Hebrews Is that believing in JESUS Christ with a victorious Faith when we believe in him to crucifie him and disgrace him by the disorders of our shameful lives Take my Brethren take other courses more worthy of him and of your selves live conformably to the belief of his Gospel let his love and his will reign in your hearts as well as his Truths in your minds in a word let your works and your life be sutable to the holiness of your Faith and then you will have a victorious Faith and you shall be in the number of the just ones of whom St. John saith in our Text That they are born of God that they triumph over the World and that they triumph by Faith God give you that Grace in this life that he may crown you in the next with GLORY Unto this Great GOD Immortal Invisible Adorable FATHER SON and HOLY GHOST who gives us these glorious Hopes be Honour Blessing and Eternal Magnificence AMEN THE END

perswades us to the contrary but when we have triumphed over these three passions which are properly that which St Paul 1 Cor. 2.12 calleth The Spirit of the World and St. John in our Text the World it self then whatever God commands is so far from painful that we find pleasure in it and the reason of this relish and this easiness is no other but what we say as our Apostle doth so evidently justifie when after he had said The Commandments of God are easie he presently brings the proof For saith he all that is born of God overcometh the World letting us see manifestly that there is nothing but the World that is its Spirit and its Maxims that makes our obedience uneasie and the infallible mark of overcoming the World is the easiness we find in obeying the Commandments of God But alas how few then are there that have overcome the World since there are so few that do not find the Commandments of God grievous it seems to them an insupportable yoke even so much that sometimes they will say that Gods Commandments are of an impossible performance You have not then overcome the World you who yet complain of their difficulty who groan under the weight of the yoke and express so much grief to submit your selves to the orders and commands that he gives you No no you have not yet triumphed over the World you that are yet Slaves to your Pleasures to your Interest and your Pride since it is that which is properly call'd the World this illustrious Victory belongs to none but the children of God whom he hath as it were transformed into himself by a resemblance of holiness of spirit and life hope not then for the glory of this triumph without being first entred into this noble Alliance with God but as soon as you are become his children by a mending of your courses and by a new birth of piety and grace be you assured that you shall triumph over the World because the Oracle of Divine Truth hath said it that all which is born of God overcometh the World And since it is by Faith that we get this Victory as the Text tells us let us examine in the last Part of this Discourse what that Faith is The Third Part. IT is with the spiritual Combats much as with the temporal it doth not suffice in ordinary Combats to be strong and to be valiant to overcome all the World knows that besides that one must have Arms and make use of them Likewise to overcome the World it is not enough to be born of God Lib. 22. cap. 25. Victoria de hoc mundo non nostris viribus adscribetur we must take Arms to oppose the violence of this formidable Enemy for as St. Austin saith in his Book of the City of God The victory over the World is not attributed to our Forces it is not by them we gain it but what Arms must we make use of nothing can triumph over the World as a principal cause or as an instrument of victory which is not born of God since St. John doth not attribute this honour but to those that are so born Our Arms then ought to be some of those Vertues which they call Theological or Divine not only because God is the chief object of them but for that he is their immediate principle to distinguish them from other Vertues which they call Moral that may spring from elsewhere Yanta est charitas quae si adsit habentur omnia si desit frustra habentur caetera Aug. Then of necessity it must be either Faith or Hope or Charity that must serve us for Arms in this Combat but why rather Faith than the other two Is not Hope admirably well fitted for this great imployment since it doth promise us eternal rewards there are no temptations nor assaults that it enableth us not to overcome or at least why should it not be Charity which is the Queen and the most noble of all vertues as the Apostle assures us and whereof St. Austin sayes That having it alone one hath all and not having it it is useless to have the rest which he learned of St. Paul who saith That neither Martyrdom nor the most holy things nor even Faith it self is any thing without Charity Nevertheless we must believe our Text which saith plainly It is by Faith that we overcome the world And St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews agrees well with this sentiment when he saith That it is by Faith that so many just persons have done such wonders and that They have vanquished Kingdoms what Kingdoms but those of the World the Flesh and the Devil and that They have conquered Eternity Is it not of Faith that our Lord himself hath said That nothing shall be impossible to it and that there needs but little of it to work wonders even to remove Mountains But whereas there are Christians that have Faith and in the mean time are rather Slaves of the World than Masters and Conquerors of it what kind of Faith is that which may be the instrument of so glorious a victory It seems the Apostle in the Verse that follows the Text would spare us the pains of this search Who is he saith he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that JESUS is the Son of God Yet there being an infinite number of people that believe so much who notwithstanding are rather overcome by the World than Conquerors of it we are still to seek and have need to repair to Divinity and to other Texts of Scripture for the clearing of so great and so important a difficulty Divinity distinguisheth two sorts of Faith the one dead the other living The dead Faith which is otherwise called unperfect or unformed is no more than a conviction we have of a truth upon Divine testimony without any bettering of our will by that conviction of our understanding some call this Faith Speculative or Historical because it makes one believe only the fact of things without leading him to other Acts worthy of such a belief It was of this Faith that St. James spake Chap. 2.14 when he said What can it profit my Brethren though a man say I have Faith and hath not Works Can Faith save him In this sense St. Paul speaks of it 1 Cor. 13.2 If I have Faith enough to remove Mountains saith he and have not Charity I am nothing There are some also which call this Faith the Faith of Devils for an Apostle speaking to a man that had Faith without works Thou believest saith he that there is a God thou dost well to believe it but the Devils believe it too and therefore they tremble The Devils for that kind of believing are no less Devils and no less wicked This barren Faith is good for nothing unless it be to make us more guilty since having believed as we ought to believe we have no excuse why we have not lived as we

conformity of the Just with God when he saith in the eighth chap. to the Romans That they are become one spirit with him which is an evident mark of the highest perfection of resemblance Well then Brethren from so many reasons must we not in the end conclude That the Just are born of God and ought not only to be called his children but are so in effect as saith Saint John in our Epistle yet it is but one of the conditions for the which the Text that we have taken may be applied fitly to them We must see Secondly whether the other necessary conditions are found in them that is if they triumph over the world and if they triumph by faith This we shall see in the two parts that remain of this Discourse But before we begin I crave one moment of reflection upon the first For it is not enough to know who are those whom Saint John saith to be born of God but we must observe whether we our selves be of that number it is not enough that adoption or even regeneration doth assure us of it but we must seek into the centre of our hearts and into the most secret passages of our lives whether we bare the Image of God and if we have that resemblance of holiness and grace which doth properly establish our right of Filiation for whosoever is unlike his Father is unjustly called his son and they are not only the Philosophers that will have this resemblance and this rapport between the production and its principle indispenseably necessary to the essence of their relation neither are they the modern Divines that introduce this necessity Have not the most ancient Fathers been of this opinion Judge ye of it by this fine learned expression of Gregory Nazianzen who says the Son is the definition of the Father that is the Son is but the expounding of what his Father is so the resemblance between the Father and the Son is no less indispenseable then between the definition of a thing and the thing defined it self which another Gregory hath more clearly expressed when he called the Son the Image of the Father But what need is there of reasons and Authorities to prove to you the necessity of this resemblance since Jesus Christ himself Saint John and Saint Paul assure us of it when they tell us that a man is the childe only of him whose works he does It is then a truth out of question That we are not the children of God but so far as we resemble him by imitation of his vertue and by this conformity of our life and innocence with his By this principle it is easie to discern whether we are born of God and it is impossible to be deceived upon so certain a rule It is the same that our Apostle gives us in the second chapter of his first Epistle If you know saith he that God is just know that whosoever doth righteousness is born of him But because this rule may possibly be too vast and some despair is to be feared if to be the children of God we must be like him in all the excellencies of his holiness and in the great number of vertues comprehended in his Justice the same Apostle in the same Epistle reduceth the necessity of this resemblance to the love of our Neighbour Beloved saith he let us love one another for love is of God and whosoever loveth is born of God O how few would be found born of him though there needed but this one resemblance to be born of him since so few love their brethren do you love your brethren you that tear them by your calumnies do you love them you that take pleasure in their disgraces and are tormented with their prosperities in good earnest do you think you love them who seek so many occasions to hurt them and shun all occasions to help them no no! let us not flatter our selves but confess ingenuously that we do not love our brethren while we harbour grudges against them coldness sharpness envy suspition contempt with infinite other dispositions and thoughts that are more criminal It is not then of us that St. Iohn speaks in our Text because not loving our brethren it is impossible we should be born of him the hatred we have for them destroying all the resemblance that otherwise we should have of him for what resemblance can we have of any person if we hate what he loves since love and hate are the two great Movers which carry on the rest of our Passions there is necessarily a hatred between two wills when one hateth what the other loves Will you then be the children of God St. John hath told you in two words what is necessary for that Love one another for whosoever loveth is born of God What! do you refuse to purchase so great an honour at so cheap a rate Consider the glory of being children of such a Father and see how easily you may obtain it And that you may have a greater desire to it I will shew you the illustrious victory that they get over the World who are born of God it is the second part of my Text and of my Discourse THE SECOND PART Amongst infinite circumstances that compose an illustrious victory Clarior laus est quo clarior est quem vice●is Curt. l. 6. Non est gloriosa victoria nisi ubi su●int glo●i sa sa certamina Amoros lib. ● Offic. the most considerable is the force of the Enemie which is overcome whence a great Historian took occasion to say That a Triumph was so much the more illustrious as be was whom we triumph ever and St. Ambrose with the same spirit saith That no Victory is glorious but after a difficult combate and a pertinacious Resistance therefore the Scripture describes with so much care the powerful Armies of Pharaoh Holophernes Sennacherib and all the other great enemies of Israel for thereby a greater ground is afforded for admiring the Conqueror and to adore the greatness of God the chief cause of the victory even of the Giant whom David overcame the sacred History marks exactly all that might render him terrible that the triumph of the generous Shepherd might be so much the more commended as there was more difficulty to overcome so powerful an enemy I must follow the Example the Scripture gives me and let you see what is the strength of this world which is overcome in the Text by the children of God that you may judge of the glory of the Triumph and that so I may make you the more desire it But first we must know what world is here spoken of it being a word very equivocal in Scripture All the different significations that it makes use of may be reduced to two principal since it never speaks of the world but in a physical or moral sense that is the world is still put in a natural or mystical signification in Scripture Again the natural world is