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	save_v	4,872	5	7.1588	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53518	A Sermon preached in an Anabaptist meeting in Wapping, on Sunday the 19th of February by the reverend T.O., D.D. upon this text, Heb. Ch. XI, v. 1, Faith is the evidence of things not seen.		1699 (1699)	Wing O55; ESTC R16261	8,273	14

A SERMON Preached in an Anabaptist Meeting IN WAPPING On SUNDAY the 19th of February Printed at the request of his Congregation for Zachariah Marshal near the Long-Cellar in Wapping 1699. Price 3 d. HEB. Chap. XI Part of the 1st verse Faith is the Evidence of things not seen Dearly Beloved WHo was the Author of this famous Epistle to the Hebrews whether St. Paul as Cornelius à Lapide and his Disciple St. Jerome would have it or whether it was written by some other converted Jew which was the opinion of Alexander ab Alexandro and some other Lutheran Divines that opposed the proceedings of the Council of Constance in the sixth Century it is not material here to determine For my part I must own that St. Paul seems to have the fairest title to it but tho I have Sworn to a thousand bold things in my time yet I would not swear Beloved that this Epistle was written by the aforesaid Apostle But leaving this Controversie where we found it let us now proceed to our Text. Faith is the Evidence of things not seen From which words I draw these four Propositions First That Faith is an Evidence Secondly If Faith is an Evidence that an Evidence consequently ought to be beleived Thirdly That there are many things talked off in the world that were never seen Fourthly and Lastly That an Evidence and through him any Nation may nay ought to believe in things not seen First I say then that Faith is an Evidence The sacred Writer of this Epistle positively asserts it how then dares any man that professes himself a Christian revile censure and speak contumelious things of any Evidence I don't speak this because it was my own Case to be one of this number but because the truth requires it and the truth ought never to be stifled An Evidence ought to be respected and his words should in all civilized Nations be received for Oracles for if Faith is an Evidence why then may not we be saved by an Evidence as well as by Faith I believe my Beloved you remember the time when I was the top Evidence in the horrid Popish Plot but if you don 't I do When ever I came to Westminster-Hall or to the Old Baily or to any well-affected Coffee-house in the City the people ran in shoals to view my person and made a lane for me as I passed along One cry'd make room for the King's Evidence there How says his Neighbour is the Gentleman there with his mouth in the middle of his face he that sav'd our Wives and Daughters from being ravished by the Man of Sin Thus was I respected and admired by all Truly I may say it without vanity that little England never since it was little England had so much Faith as when the Lord made me his unworthy instrument to broach the Popish Plot at both ends The Nation believ'd my Salamanca degree and the White-horse Consult they believed my Forty thousand Pilgrims with black Bills and Father Ireland's forty thousand Masses In short they in effect believed when I said the words that Chalk was Cheese and that Cheese was Chalk These were blessed times now my Beloved for an Evidence to live in And accordingly then it prosper'd with the Nation for their extraordinary Faith We hanged up scores of Idolatrous Priests and sent their Bishops to Grass we seized their Collars of Brawn for concealed Jesuits and their Silver Tankards and Gold Watches for Popish relicks In short we made the Whore of Babylon take down her sign so that the Protestant Religion flourished exceedingly But when the Nation began once to be possest with the Spirit of Infidelity and my Evidence was not received as formerly observe then my Beloved how the Lord powr'd the vial of his indignation upon these sinful people Popery came upon us like an armed man and Superstition over-ran our Pastures like a Flood Magdalen-College was disparked and laid out to the Common the Boys of St. Omers bearded us in Westminster-Hall we had four Popish Biships like the four winds blowing from the four corners of the Map The Monks walked publickly in their Habits and Carted Bawds had the impudence to set up for Converts This in short was the condition of our Affairs when my Evidence was rejected and my Testimony turn'd out of doors Thus I have made it plain that Faith is an Evidence I come now to the Second point If faith then is an Evidence it follows consequently that an Evidence ought to be believed The Talmud observes that the Prophets in the old Testament were called Evidences and it was a proper title for they confirmed their messages with an Oath As my Soul liveth saith Nathan to David in Samuel to instance in no more Is it not plain and manifest therefore that an Evidence is to be believed Moreover as it is said that no man is a Prophet is his own Country may it not such is the incredulity of this Apostate age be applied to the Evidences viz. that no man is an Evidence in his own Country As I told you before Brethren my Evidence was received at first and how why Unversally by King Lords and Commons I had my Guard of Beef-eaters to protect me from being insulted or assassinated my ten pound per Week duly paid without deductions Venison Pasties and Westphalia-Hams flew to my Table without sending for I was as much stared at at the Amsterdam-Coffee-house and at Dick's as a Foreign Ambassador when he makes his entry through Fleetstreet But when an Unbelieving Generation of Scoffers strated up of whom the Observ●tor was the Ring-leader and began to examine my Narrative with the Carnal Eye of Reason when they were so malicious and ill natured as to lay aside their Faith and to enquire after the credibility of the things by me deposed when they impudently asserted that my Plot would not hold water and that there were several irreconcileable contradictions in my Book never to be solved then these Sons of Amaleck neglected me their Deliverer and Saviour who like Samson slew their Enemies with the Jawbone of an Ass It fell out unluckily for me I must own that I swore Circumcision a thing that may easily be discovered upon the Minister of Duke's place My forty thousand Spanish Pilgrims were improbable Devils with a witness for who the plague could bring so many of 'em together however though they looked so foolish and ridiculous who could disprove them whereas to swear circumcision against a man unless the case had been certainly so was the greatest folly in the Universe and if ever I repent I shall put it among my Retractations Every Midwife or Matron nay in this knowing age a raw Girl of Thirteen can tell whether such an allegation be true but I may thank the Devil or if the Devil and a certain Noble person may be put together without a Scandalum Magnatum I may thank a certain Lord too for bringing me into this misfortune who makes