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	reveal_v	5,457	5	8.8529	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43141	Tvvo sermons preached in the parish church of St. Giles in the fields, by way of preparative upon the Articles of the Creed by VVilliam Haywood ...	Haywood, William, 1599 or 1600-1663.	1642 (1642)	Wing H1241; ESTC R5536	37,177	43

their number they are three Secondly their continuance they abide Thirdly the extent of their continuance how long they abide and that is nunc during the state of this present life Now they abide Faith Hope and Charitie these three These three first that points to their number and it gives us to note first saith Cajetane that they are not all one and the same vertue and therefore would not rashly be confounded Some upon the former words of the Apostle at the seventh verse of this Chapter Charitie beleeveth all things hopeth all things endureth all things are ready to conclude that these three vertues grow at last into one and all shut up in Charitie for as much as beleeving is the act of faith and yet the Apostle saith Charitie beleeveth all things and expecting the act of Hope and yet hee saith Charitie hopeth all things It should seeme therefore if charitie execute the acts of faith and hope that faith and hope are at length confounded with charitie But it is not so the Apostle tels us they are three still and they remaine three though charitie at length get the pr●hemin●nc● and command the acts of both the other Three they are then and only three as no lesse so no more no more vertues truly called Theologicall or Divine but these that is vertues which fix upon God as their immediate object No why is there not the Feare of God and Pietic and Zeale and Invocation and Confession And what is the immediate object of these but God Right saith Aquinas Other vertues may fix upon God too but it is mediantibus●stis by the mediation of these All other divine vertues doe but manifest our Faith Hope and Charity or put them in execution Only Faith Hope and Charity joyne us immediately to God other graces joyne us to him by the meanes of these As for example What is Invocation and Prayer to God but an effect of our Faith and therefore unites us to the Almightie because it is made in faith so faith comes between prayer and God What is the feare of God if it be a chaste and filiall feare but the fruit of our love Wee cannot love God dearly but wee must needs feare to lose his favour And if it be only a servile fear then it is the fruit of our faith wee feare the power and vengeance of God because we beleeve him to be Almighty What else are Zeale and Piety but fruits of our Charity likewise Wee obey God we are zealous for him Why but because wee love him so love comes between zeale God Patience long suffering what are they but effects of our hope Therfore we are patient because we wait hope for Gods help so hope comes between patience and God These 3 then only these 3 Faith Hope Charitie are called vertues Theological or truly divine because they fix immediately wholly upon God all other vertues but in through these God is the measure saith Cajetane the Formalis ratio the enti●e object of saith sith what ever truth we beleeve by faith we beleeve only for Gods sake because wee beleeve God hath revealed it What ever blessings we embrace by divine hope it is for Gods cause too who hath made us promises in his word to build our hope upon who himselfe is hoped for as the true fountaine of our blisse What ever good we fix upon by our Charitie it is for Gods sake also God is the thing we love above all all things else but for under God So that these three none but these are the three vertues properly and immediately divine subordinate to no other But are they not also subordinate among themselves Yes that they are And that makes such a cōnexion between them that where one abides they abide all together that abiding is the next point of our division next after their number their continuance Now abide these three Abide how why united and joyned together as I told you so that where one of them is there must needs be the other And abide that is uninterruptedly continually as long as wee abide Christians wee cannot bee in the favour of God without all of them First united they abide where one is there is the other Where Charitie is there must needs bee Hope for Hope is the ground of love we cannot love unlesse wee hope to partake some good by what we love And where Hope is there must needs bee Faith expect any blessing we cannot unlesse wee first beleeve the goodnesse of that we hope for a blessing from So that Charitie infers the rest yea and so doth faith also For though it bee true there is Fides historica a bare historicall Faith such an one as the Devils beleeve and tremble by as St. Iames hath it a Faith without Love yet that is not the lively and justifying faith true saving faith can be no more without love than the body can be without life it is a dead faith that lives not by charitie and if saving faith include charitie it must needs draw in hope too For no charitie can be unlesse it be founded in hope as yee have heard already so that take one of these and take all where one abide all abide where one is wanting all are wanting No marvell therefore the Apostle saith now abide these three that is these three altogether Take any one away and the other fall to the ground And as they are thus necessarie one to another so they are assistant and helpfull each to the other Faith assistant to Hope and Hope to Charitie and Charitie to both and everie of them to one another For he that beleeves in God saith Haymo hopes also for those things which he finds promised from God and the more he hopes the stronger he beleeves and beleeving and hoping things so excellent he cannot choose but love The more hee hopes the more he delights in his hope the more hee delights the more hee must needs love for delight cherisheth love as love still begets more delight Hence is it that faith it selfe cannot stand unlesse the delight of hope strengthen it and support it that it may not bee wearie of beleeving Nor can hope it selfe subsist unlesse it bee grounded in faith as it were an anchor upon a rock nor can the rock long hold the anchor nor the anchor cleave to the rock unlesse Charitie like a strong cable fasten and pull both together so that each of these help one another to abide and abide any one or two cannot well if the third be wanting Thus you see their 〈◊〉 nexion in abiding Next there followes their continuance in abiding and that yee may observe in the Adverb Nunc the next point of our division Now they abide that is during the state of our Christianitie or if yee will of our mortalitie During the state of our Christianitie they are so necessarie that none can bee a moment without them and abide in Gods

therefore Charity take place of all the rest yet let it not be set above these Let Faith and Hope goe hand in hand with Charity at least Nay faith the Apostle The greatest of these is charity That is Faith and Hope must give place to Charity though all vertues else give place to them It is true they be all necessary and perpetuall in this life all three of them No Christian can be without every one of them it is granted All our labour tends to these three and these are the samme of whatsoever perfection can be named 〈…〉 now therefore they abide abid as it were at the foot of the 〈◊〉 having cast up all other miraculous gifts and graces here is the 〈◊〉 take all in a little it is but Faith Hope and Charity which all among to But even in this totall consisting as it were of three Figures mistake not the quantity Charity is the greatest of the three As all other things tend to the building up of these so two of these that is Faith and Hope it selfe tend to the building up of Charity and Charity is the top of the building Charity is the Crowne of all the ●est not only surmounting other Graces but these too Surmounting them and outlasting them for though Faith and Hope last and abide throughout all the course of this life as needfull as Charity yet in the next life onely Charity shall abide Faith and Hope shall then have no more place And therefore let not faith and hope how fundamentall soever dildaine to yeeld to Charity Charity is greater then Faith and Hope Charity is the highest of the three and if it bee so follow after charity what ever perfection else yee attaine let all serve to this and let love be the end and scope and measure of all This is the summe of the Apostles Doctrin and it is sure no impertinent one of ours for these times Wherein as if Charity were not the greatest vertue but the least of all every mans gifts and endowments tend to Charity in the last place each striving to reare up his owne glory or advance his owne profit every one looking on his owne things and not the things that are Jesus Christs Wherein above all other heavenly fires Charity is nearest to cinders zeale it may be burning and desire and courage and confidence all of a flame but the love of too many waxing cold Never more needfull sure for Charity to bee preached of the World being so full of rents and divisions the Church so distracted with factions and Schisme while few regard the publike so their private may be safe Faith and Hope much boasted of but little good Workes seene Knowledge and Revelation of the Spirit mightily talked of but little peace and amity one towards another If ever therefore it were seasonable to have Charity commended and pressed upon us I thinke never more then in these last and worst daies Heare therefore the judgement of St. Paul St. Paul as ful of miraculous gifts as ever any as zealous for the honour of faith as none more as paineful in his labours for the Gospell and as patient in hope as all the Apostles beside and yet preferring Charity above all Now abide these three faith hope and charity but the greatest of these is charity Two parts we find in the words one declarative touching the eminence of these three vertues Now abide faith hope and charity these three Another Comparative touching the preheminence of Charity or rather if you will both of them Comparative First these three preferred there all other vertues Now abide these three faith hope and charity And Secondly Charity preferred highest amongst them the grea●●st of these is charity In the former of these yee may observe 〈◊〉 the vertues themselves and then what is aff●d of them The vertues themselves are these Faith Hope and Charity Then it is affirmed of them that they are three and that they abide so Now abide these three c. We shall first God willing survey the vertues themselves what they are Secondly how they are three eminent above others and connected between themselves And Thirdly how Charity is preferred above the other two the greatest of these ●charity Web gin with the vertues themselves what they are Faith Hope and Charity For the first of them viz. Faith what that is Saint Paul himselfe saves us the labour and seemes to define that to our hands Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seene To understand which yee are to note the proper act of Faith and that is to beleeve Beleeving is as the Schoole-men define it an assent of the mind unto somewhat the truth of which is not clearely perceived but taken upon credit As that such and such Cities are in the World Rome Venice which perhaps we have had never seene such and such men have lived before our times Tully and Cato which wee have never knowne A great difference there is betwixt this and perfect science as betweene this and weake conjecture For perfect science is of things we either perceive by the sence as that Snow is white and Fire is hot and the like or else see clearely by the light of the understanding as that every part is lesse then the whole every whole double to its halfe Such things as these are more then beleeved they are perfectly knowne those onely are beleeved which are fully assented to and yet not perfectly known So in Christs healing the sick of the Palsic the Apostles and others that saw it done they had perfect knowledge Wee that have the story in the Gospell have onely the beleefe of it Infidels not so much as the beleefe I have insisted on this the rather to shew the meaning of the Apostle how faith is of things not seene For if wee have porfect knowledge that is full sight of what we beleeve our beleefe is at an end That is not faith but vision Faith then is a beleefe relying upon the credit of others concerning things we doe not perfectly know But all this comes not home to Divinity The faith the Apostle speaks of is concerning some speciall things and some speciall kind of credit and that is a religious beleefe of what God hath revealed and particularly of such things as concerne our salvation So that Divine faith is properly an assent to divine Revelation When we beleeve such and such things because God hath declared them and thus before any Scripture Abraham beleeved the promise of God concerning his Posterity and it was impated unto him for righteousnesse And Noah beleeved God fore-telling the Floud and prepared the Arke for safety of himselfe and his Houshold Thus faith is more antient then Scripture But since the Scriptures were written and the Canon finished and Revelation ceased in the mouthes of the Prophets and Apostles Now all Divine Revelation is confined within the Scriptures and the written Booke of the