Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	scripture_n	true_a	word_n	7,817	5	4.4125	4	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

Bibles become now the adequate object of faith sith no divine Revelation we know in these daies any where save in Scripture And yet all things in Scripture doe not alike essent ally belong to our faith but chiefly those things that concerne our salvation for Faith saith St. Paul is the substance of things hoped for so that those eternall blessings wee expect and hope for in the world to come those are the principall matter of faith Hence comes the applying and particular faith whereby we beleeve our sins remitted our selves reconciled into Gods favour and all the promises made to the faithfull in Scripture particularly and personally belonging to us I know there are many cavils betwixt our Writers and the Romish about the true nature of Faith Bellarmine and his Crue would have Faith no more than a bare assent to Gods revealed Truth as that Christ is the true Son of God that he was made man that he suffered was buried rose againe and the like Calvin and those that follow him would have it more than a bare assent namely together with our assenting an applying all the benefit of what we beleeve to our selves as that Christ died and rose againe for me that my sins are remitted that I shall be glorified in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting But this is objected by Popish writers to belong to Hope So Lapide What is Hope saith he if this be Faith If I must beleeve my selfe in the number of the Elect that I shall persevere to the end and be saved Why Hope can doe no more To salve this doubt we must in the second place enquire into the nature of Hope and it is defined by the Schoole to be Expectatio boni ardui futuri An expectation of some great good to come Here we may observe immediately no small difference from faith for the act of faith is to beleeve the act of hope to expect or look for Faith beleeves things good and bad hell as well as heaven torments to come as well as blessednesse Hope fixes only upon that which is good we hope for no other things than those that concerne our happinesse Faith is also as well of things past as of things to come but Hope is only of things to come We beleeve that Christ died and rose againe by faith as well as that hee shall come to judgement wee cannot hope that Christ shall rise again as we hope he shal come to judgement So then as Hessusius Hessusius well notes there is no such confusion betwixt our Faith Hope as Lapide talks of for by faith we beleeve all manner of good things and evill things revealed in Gods word be they past present or to come But by Hope wee embrace only good things and those neither past nor present but to come and such as wee earnestly desire and wait for Consequently that my sins are remitted is not matter of Hope but of Faith for this is a thing presant That I am an elect child of God not matter of Hope neither but of Faith for it is a thing past our election is from eternitie But that I shall persevere and be saved that is a matter as well of Hope as of Faith because it is a future good Herein only is the difference that by faith I beleeve my salvation to come and assent unto it as a sure thing but by Hope I long and wait for my salvation to come and wish and pray for it as a good thing So that faith is the ground of hope and hope the perfection of faith No such confusion therefore betwixt a justifying faith and a religious hope as our cavilling Romanists imagine By this you see how faith and hope differ we come in the next place to charitie which is defined by the learned to be Habitus quo diligitur Deus propter seipsum proximus propter Deum A vertue whereby wee love God for himselfe and our neighbour for Gods sake This appeares immediately distinguished from faith and hope for the act of faith is to beleeve of hope to expect but of charitie to love Againe faith beleeves things absent only and not seene but charitie loves as well what it sees as what it sees not And hope looks only for things to come but charitie loves things present likewise so that charitie is larger and fuller than either of the other Neverthelesse it cannot be denyed though charitie be larger yet it proceeds from the other for faith is the root both of charitie hope too He that comes to God must beleeve that God is saith St. Paul that he is a rewarder of them that seek him must beleeve first that God is there is faith then and faith first of all And secondly that he is a rewarder of them that seeke him there is the ground of hope suppose which and charitie will follow for if I hope for reward from God I cannot be so unnaturall as not to love him if it be but for the benefit sake I hope to receive from him Hope of earthly benefits begets love how much more hope of heavenly But untill faith and hope have gotten place I cannot love For before faith comes there is no knowledge of God at all and if no knowledge then sure no love for Ignoti nulla cupido We cannot love a thing we know not And though we know and beleeve there is a God yet untill wee find somewhat to hope for from this God we cannot love him Feare him we may indeed and admire him but not truly love him till wee find in our faith the substance of things hoped for that is some benefits received or expected from him and then comes in love which yet is no true love while it is but mercenarie while it loves God only for hires sake for those blessings it looks after from God for make the best of such a love it is but a meere concupiscentiall love such a love as a hungry man loves his meat with or a needy man his money Never is it right charitie indeed till it come to Amor amicitiae till we begin to love God as our selves nay not then neither is it right till wee have attained to prefer him above our selves to love of him better then when we have made God the ground and measure of our love so that we love him in the first place above all things else and our selves and other creatures in the second place in and for God then our charitie growes true and kindly indeed plant such a love in us once and all the Commandements of God will be easie then faith and hope wax strong and grow both the riper and the fairer by the heat of this love and so yee see in part what these three vertues are which is our first particular In the next place wee proceed to see what is affirmed of them Three things yee may here observe delivered of these three vertues in common First

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