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	reason_n	7,423	5	5.8303	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81131	The arraignment of unbelief, as the grand cause of our nationall non-establishment: cleared in a sermon to the Honourable House of Commons in Parliament, at Margarets Westminster, upon the 28th. of May, 1645. being the day of their publike fast. / By Joseph Caryl, late preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolnes-Inne, now pastor at Magnus neer the bridge, London.	Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673.; England and Wales. Parliament.	1645 (1645)	Wing C749; Thomason E286_5; ESTC R200075	31,767	54

God in our fullnesse as in our wants It is a hard thing to depend upon God in the weaknesse and want of means but it is harder to depend upon him in the fullnesse and strength of means This is the noblest act of faith And though we know in Heaven sense will swallow up faith yet on earth faith ought to swallow up our sense When we see and hear and enjoy most of the creature we should be as if we heard and saw and enjoyed nothing of the creature but lived upon God alone Observe this instanced in two great Kings Asa had an Army of men that bare targets and spears out of Iudah three hundred thousand and out of Benjamin that bare shields and drew bowes two hundred and fourscore thousand 2 Chron. 14. 8. A gallant Army Yet when Zerah the Ethiopian came against him with a more numerous Army Asa cried unto the Lord his God and said Lord it is nothing with thee to help with many or with them that have no power ver 11. But are six hundred thousand men no power Asa's faith saw no power in this compleat Army that he might see all power in God and engage him in the battell We rest on thee let not man prevail against thee He makes nothing of his Army in case of victory while he made nothing of it in case of an overthrow Let not man prevail against thee That of Jehoshaphat is yet more full who had an Army of eleven hundred and threescore thousand fighting men besides his Garisons for the field as appears upon his muster-roll 2 Chron. 17. 14 15 16 c. yet when the Moabites and the Ammonites made warre upon him he prays thus chap 20. 12. O our God wilt thou not judge them for we have no might against this great company that commeth against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee What had he no might knew he not what to do when he had 1160000 men in the field No not he He had no eye to see these or any thing but God and therefore saith Our eyes are not upon our Armies but upon thee In this faith of the creatures nothingnesse and the all-sufficiencie of God he prevailed over the Ammonites as Asa had done before over Zerah the Ethiopian We then receive most by humane helps when we expect least unbelief either takes our hearts off from God or which is as dangerous divides them upon the creature for when we lean upon two of which one is infirm we shall not stand by that which is strong but fall by that which is weak faith bids us use means and unbelief bids us trust it And though faith will trust some means in regard of their faithfullnesse yet it will trust none in regard of effectualnesse As God calls for all our obedience so for all our confidence confidence in man is ever accompanied with jealousies upon God such confidences God rejects and therefore we have not we cannot prosper in them Should this inquisition be enlarg'd and the lot cast to finde out every accursed thing which hath obstructed the influences of Heaven from making this Land a quiet habitation I might with like ease and cleernesse resolve them all into unbelief and therefore I leave unbelief under the guilt of this grand charge The Kingdoms enemy the hellish vapour which continues this our long Church-quake and State-quake or in the word of the text The stop of our establishment Let me then a while call in the help of faith as the noblest expedient for the cure of all our evils It is said Joh. 7. 37. that In the last day of the feast Jesus stood and cried saying He that beleeveth on me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water Will it not be seasonable in this great day of your Fast and solemn humiliation to lift up a voice for faith and cry out saying If ye beleeve surely ye shall be established Set faith awork in every work let it be an ingredient in all your counsels in all your actions Ye act but as men not as the people of God as a Roman not as a Christian Senate without faith As by faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice then Cain his brother so by faith one offers the Church the state better advice then his neighbour When you prepare armes and Armies arme your selves with this shield Faith is the best weapon It will quench the fiery darts of men as well as the fiery darts of the Devil if your Armies were weak faith would recruit and strengthen them now they are strong faith will continue and encrease them when your affairs are at a stand faith will put them in motion faith is a friend at a dead lift If there be but a little meal in your barrell and a little oyl in your cruze faith will lead you into the store-houses of Heaven and shew you all the treasures and riches which are laid up there As Hezekiah led the Ambassadors of Babylon from chamber to chamber and shewed them all the riches and provisions of his royall house both for peace and warre so will faith but upon better principles take you by the hand and lead you from one attribute of God to another and shew you all fullnesse of all things there unsearchable riches of mercy here unchangeable faithfullnesse there infinite strength and here purest exactest wisedom to improve and manage it We can never be at a losse while we can beleeve for that will finde out helpe for us when sense can see none when reason and policie can project none If Information be desired how or when we act by faith towards publike establishment take it thus First Faith acts in the strength upon the truth and goodnesse of a promise Promises are the aire and element in which faith breathes and lives Faith languishes unlesse fed and dieted by divine engagements it relishes no fare but of Gods own providing it must have a promise in the word or a promise in the works of God to rest upon The works of God have a promise in them as well as the word of God and are therefore the objects of faith not only as faith notes the beleeving of what is done but also as it notes the beleeving of what is to be done In which sense we are to understand that reproof of the Jews Psal 78. 32. They beleeved not his wondrous works They did beleeve the history of his works namely that such things as are there recorded were done They could not but beleeve that God had wrought wonders for them in Egypt that he had drowned Pharaoh in and brought them safe thorow the red sea they saw these things their senses were witnesses but yet they did not beleeve the prophecie or promise which was vertually in those works namely that God would do more wonders for them till he had finisht and accomplisht their deliverance That history of their bringing thorow the red sea

living out of a word of promise but unbelief will let us die and starve in the midst and throng of all the promises yea unbelief as to us destroyeth the promises and cuts the sinews of them so that they cannot stirre hand or foot to help us Yet further unbelief as much as in it lies turnes all the promises into fallacies and the truth of God into a lie Faith feeds upon the goodnesse of the promises and unbelief devours the truth of them Surely they shall never receive the good of a promise who deny and destroy the truth of a promise A fourth reason is this Unbelief destroys all former mercies therefore certainly unbelief will hinder future mercies by unbelief God loses all the favours he hath bestowed upon us when we beleeve not what is to be done we unbeleeve all that God hath done He that having been pardoned his sinne doth not beleeve that God will pardon him still unbeleeves that he was ever pardoned It is so in the case of temporals And can we think he will bestow new favours where he hath lost those he hath bestowed God will never trust that which distrusts him The seven lean kine of Pharaoh eat up the fat kine though we have had seven fat kine and full ears of corn though God hath given us seven full mercies seven great deliverances yet unbelief will swallow them all at a bit as it were and yet be as lean and empty as before We see it clearly in that passage of the people of Israel Exod. 14. 11. God had wrought a great deliverance for them he had brought them out of Egypt with a strong hand and they had seen the wonders of God ten times there but as soon as ever they came to the red sea unbelief seized upon them Oh they should never overcome that difficulty never get past that danger What doth this their unbelief even what I have said it devoured all former mercies Nay it not only took away former mercies but turned them into afflictions and crosses so we may enterpret their complaint Because there were no graves in Egypt hast thou taken us away to die in the wildernesse wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of Egypt for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians then that we should die in the wildernesse See how angry they were at former mercies how they preferre bondage before deliverance Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us out of Egypt Can we judge a people who are angry with former mercies fit to receive new mercies Such is the language of unbelief at this day How many in their distresses when they are brought as it were unto the red sea wish that this Reformation had never been begunne it had been better for them to have served their old task-masters both in spirituals and in temporals then to endure such hardship then to run such hazzards and be at such cost to free themselves they look upon all the wonders which God hath wrought as matters of their sorrow We see what we have brought our selves to O that we had suffered any thing rather then what we suffer Fiftly Unbelief robs God of his honour and that which takes glory from God must needs hinder mercy from man we can never enrich our selves by robbing God unbelief is a God-robbing sinne and it robbes God of that which is most precious to him unbelief is a bold sinne it goes into Gods Cabinet and takes away his chiefest jewell it takes away that which he saith he will not give away his glory The glory of God is nothing else but Isa 42. 8. that reputation which he hath in the world I speak not of his essentiall glory which he hath from all eternity and shall have whether men beleeve or no but I speak of his extrinsecall manifestative and declarative glory this unbelief obscureth and casteth a vail upon yea steals quite away You know a mans glory is gone when his credit is gone if a man be in such a condition that no man will beleeve him or take his word or give him credit that man hath lost all his honour and reputation in the world Now unbelief makes God of no credit in the world let him speak what he will let him give his word his hand his covenant his seal his oath he hath no credit among unbeleevers It is said of the old Saints Heb. 11. 2. that by faith they obtained a good report There is no grace brings so much honour to man as faith doth and I do assure you there is no grace brings God so much honour as faith doth by faith God himself obtains a good report among the Saints His Name is great among those who are of great faith Gods Name is up when our hearts are up in beleeving and his Name is down when our hearts are down in unbelief He that receiveth the testimony of God sets to his Joh. 3. 33. seal that God is true but he that will not receive the testimony of God he as much as he can hath set to his seal that God is false The Apostle quaeries Rom. 3. 3. What if some did not beleeve shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect His denying question implies that this was the attempt of unbelief even to make the faith of God that is the faithfullnesse of God of none effect It is as if he should say This is it which these by their unbelief would do or to do which there is a tendencie in unbelief God doth and will right himself in honour shew himself faithfull though all the world should prove liars and unbeleevers But no thanks to unbelief that would put the highest dishonour upon God even that of falsehood to his own word and unfaithfullnesse to his people Consider this can we thrive by endamaging God or is it probable God will encrease our comforts while we are decocting and wasting his honour From all these considerations the point is clearly demonstrated that unbelief is the stop of publike blessings and therefore I conclude for the truth of it That Without beleeving there can be no establishing Hence learn first how excellent and usefull a grace faith is Some think little of employing faith in any businesse beyond the line of the justification of a sinner But as the Saints of old so we may make other improvements of it For as by faith the walls of Jericho were shaken and fell down Heb. 11. 30. so by faith the walls of Jerusalem may be setled and raised up As by faith those ancient Worthies subdued Kingdoms so by faith at this day we may establish Kingdoms We must not only go to prayer by faith but to counsell by faith and to warre by faith by this grace we may wax valiant in fight and turn to flight the Armies of the aliens ver 34. When Jehoshaphats Armies went forth to battell his military Oration had but this flower