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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	prove_v	scripture_n	tradition_n	5,001	5	9.5879	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93124	Two sermons preached in St. Maries Church in Cambridge. By Robert Sheringham, Master of Arts, and Fellow of Gunvil and Caius Colledge.	Sheringham, Robert, 1602-1678.	1645 (1645)	Wing S3239; Thomason E285_1; ESTC R200065	41,774	103

doubts and scruples The eye cannot discern an object though present except there be light to make it visible and although the articles of faith be sufficiently presented to the vnderstanding by supernaturall revelation yet if there be not a supernaturall light too to make the truth evident the wound of Ignorance cannot be healed Naturall Reason is too weak to enlighten the soule sufficiently for as Noah's dove could find no rest in the air for the sole of her foot so when the vnderstanding enters into contemplation of supernaturall truths as in the thin and subtile air it can find nothing to rest on or as Saint Peter had sunk when hee walked upon the sea Matth. 14.30 31. if our Saviour Christ had not upholden him with his hands so the vnderstanding sinks when it walks upon the deep ocean of supernaturall truths if it be not upholden by divine assistance And yet as Reason may move the affections in order to supernaturall goodnesse but cannot heal their infirmity so it can likewise enlighten the vnderstanding in order to supernaturall truths but cannot heal its ignorance The light of Reason may make supernaturall truths so evident to the vnderstanding that a man may think his faith perfect in all respects and yet it may be perfect in nothing The ancient Fathers of the Church in their Apologies for Christian religion alledge many reasons which may make a naturall man beleeve the articles of our Christian faith The miracles which were wrought by the Apostles have given their doctrine such authority that a naturall man cannot but assent unto it unlesse his vnderstanding be carried away by some private respect and interest of his own And hee that hath this assent may think his understanding is enlightened and healed sufficiently but hee deceives himself like the Syrians which thought they had been in the way to the Prophet 2 King 6.20 when they were in the midst of Samaria or like Sauls messengers 1 Sam. 19.16 which thought they had found David when they found but an image in his place For this faith that springs from naturall Reason is but imago simulacrum fidei the image and representation of true faith it is like it in shew but differeth much from it in essence For there are two properties essentiall to true faith which nothing but the light of grace can work in the soul The first is certainty Nothing but the light of grace can work in us such a certainty as is essentiall to true faith Hee that beleeves a thing certainly must have some infallible motive cui falsum subesse non potest in which there can be no errour or delusion for an uncertaine motive can give a man no assurance of that which he beleeves Certainty of faith alwayes supposeth a certain and infallible motive upon which it is built Now concerning the articles of our faith nothing but the light of grace can give us an infallible motive of their truth for many of them being above Reason cannot by the light of Reason be made evident But some perhaps will say A naturall man by the light of Reason may beleeve the Scriptures to be true and to be the word of God and so may have an infallible motive For hee that beleeves the articles of faith because they are grounded upon the authority of Gods word hath a sure and certain motive of their truth it being impossible that any falshood should proceed from God To this I answer Although a naturall man may beleeve the Scriptures to be true and to be the word of God yet his faith concerning this matter is but an historicall kind of faith and is grounded upon deceitfull and uncertain motives and therefore though the Scriptures be an infallible motive to those that have certaine grounds to beleeve them to be true and to be the word of God yet they can be no infallible motive to him that hath not such grounds for they that are not sure that the Scriptures are true and that they are the word of God cannot be sure that any thing is true which they prove from them Now a naturall man cannot from the light of Reason have any other but uncertain and deceitfull grounds concerning the truth of Scripture for hee beleeves them to be true and to be the word of God either from the tradition of the Church from the miracles which were wrought by the Apostles or from some other humane motive in which although there be great probability yet there can be no infallibility Such grounds as these can give him no such assurance as excludes all possibility of deceit he hath but an historicall faith of the truth of Scripture and so can have but an historicall certainty But the light of grace shewes us infallibly the truth of Scripture it gives us an experimentall knowledge of it and makes us as it were to see it with our eyes so that there is as great a difference between the faith that a man hath from the light of Reason and that which hee hath afterward from the light of grace as there was between the faith which the Samaritans had of our Saviour Christ from the speech of the woman and that which they had afterwards when they saw him with their eyes The second property essentiall to true faith which nothing but the light of grace can work in the soul is a pious affection to faith and to all the truths which it reveales nothing but the light of grace can work this pious affection in us The light of Reason although it cannot make all truths evident that are to be beleeved yet as I said before there are many truths that may be discovered by it namely such as are of the law of nature but then it cannot like grace work a pious affection in the soul towards them The Divell sees many excellent truths by the naturall light of his understanding hee sees that God is infinitely good and infinitely wise and infinitely just and infinitely mercifull and infinitely happy but hee can have no affection to these truths hee sees them all in lumine coacto in a forced and compelled light and not in lumine jucundo in a delightfull and pleasant light A theefe may know by the light of reason that theft is an unjust act or an adulterer that adultery is unlawfull but they can have no affection to these truths their faith is like the Divels they beleeve them by the force and compulsion of Reason and not with delight and pleasure But the light of grace doth not onely make truth evident but it produceth also in the soul a pious affection towards that truth it makes a man to be in love with it and to delight in it I have had as great delight in the way of thy testimonies as in all manner of riches saith David Psal 119.14 And so say all they whose understandings are enlightned by grace He that hath the light of reason can delight onely in such

TWO SERMONS PREACHED IN St. MARIES CHVRCH IN CAMBRIDGE BY ROBERT SHERINGHAM Master of Arts and Fellow of GUNVIL and CAIUS Colledge LONDON Printed by Iames Young and are to be sold by John Williams at the signe of the Crowne in Pauls Church-yard 1645. THE PREFACE TO THE CHRISTIAN READER IT is not any excellence that I suppose to be in mine own labour hath made me expose it to the publique view but the manifold obligations that I owe to God and the Common-wealth My desire is to pay part of a debt and not to set out a Manifesto of mine own merits which I know how meane and small they are The first and greatest debt I owe is to God a debt so impossible to be fully paid that whilst I offer now to pay it but in part I shall make it greater for all that I can render unto the Lord for all his benefits is to endeavour what I can to set forth his glory and when I have done that I shall by such a payment rather encrease my debt then lessen it as doing whatsoever I doe by his grace and assistance Howsoever I shall strive this way to do what I am able when I cannot otherwise labour by encreasing my debt to pay it The glory of God is and I hope shall ever be dearer unto me then my owne life or happinesse were there as many worlds in truth and reality as some Philosophers have conceited in their fancie I had rather performe one Act whereby God might bee glorified then be owner of them all This that I have now done I confesse is not much yet by his own blessing it may in some measure help to set forth his glory and at the last when the fruit and succcesse of all mens labour shall be made manifest be a joy and comfort unto me The second debt I owe is to the Common-wealth whose good profit and advantage all men are bound to promote according as their respective callings and abilities shall make them capable For although our desires be various and spring from many severall Fountains yet they ought all to meet in the main sea of publike profit They which neglect the common good and seek only occasions to spend their time in ease and pleasure are but the superfluities of nature and may seem to be born for no other end but to contradict that received principle that God nature makes nothing in vain The light of the Sunne is ever in action it produceth gold and silver and rich perfumes and makes the whole earth pleasant and fruitfull the light of knowledge ought to inspire us also with the same activities he that makes not the light of knowledge as fruitfull in spirituall as that of the Sun is in naturall productions makes not that gain of knowledge which he should I will therefore endeavour to make my light active which how small and weak soever it be may yet by the gracious assistance of God and his concurrence with it further the spirituall progresse and advancement of some These are the chiefe inducements which together with the invitation of divers friends whereof some desired Copies determining to put them in print without my knowledge moved wee to publish these Sermons not intended by me at the first to bee made publike Many that heard them when they were delivered have professed that they were much wrought upon and affected by them I hope they will have the same influence upon those that read them The faults that are committed in the printing are neither very many nor very materiall yet there are some Some things are set down by way of parenthesis where they ought not In some places divers words are omitted in others mistaken For by reason I could not be present to oversee the Presse my selfe the Composer was forced to guesse at the words where the Copy was blotted and imperfect as it was in many places Yet these mistakes have not in any place that I have observed either depraved the sense or altered it although sometimes they doe a little disfigure the phrase and therefore I have not caused the Errata to be noted at the end For I desire not to seeme curious but have rather endeavoured to avoyde curiositie especially where I have occasion to reprehend the faults of any lest I should seeme to whip them with a posie If thou findest any thing that proveth usefull and profitable unto thee give God the glory to whose protection I will leave thee PSALM 41.4 Heal my soul for I have sinned against thee THese words were uttered by David in the bitterness of his soul after hee had committed the two crying sins of Adultery and Murther For David a man after Gods own heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Psa 50. as S. Chrysostome speaks of him a man that lived as strictly in his kingly palace as in a cloister or monastery fell notwithstanding into notorious and scandalous offences Hee that like an immoveable rock had broken the waves of all temptations was now broken himself In a word David that victorious King whom neither the lion nor the bear nor Goliah himselfe the terrour of a whole army could overcome was conquered by his owne passions wounded by his own lust and brought into that extremity that neither the balm of Gilead nor all the physicians there could heale those wounds But although he sinned yet he continued not long in his apostasie as soon as the prophet Nathan moved him to repentance he confessed his fault began a repentance that ended not til his death There came a traveller saith the prophet Nathan unto the rich man and hee spared to take of his owne flock but took the poor mans lamb and dressed it for the man that was come unto him 2 Sam. 12.4 Sinne is there stiled but a traveller for it was none of his domestick followers Transitus erat non permansio as S. Augustine De doctr Christ lib. 3. cap. 21. hee did but lodge sin for a time hee did not suffer it to dwell with him for ever for as soon as he grew sensible of his own distemper he makes his complaint to God the onely physician of his soule desiring him to restore and heal him If there be any here then that have imitated Davids sins learn also to imitate his repentance Sin came to David but as a traveller God grant it comes but as a traveller to you The parts of my Text are three First here is Designatio partis vulneratae Davids discovery of the wounded part and that was his soule Heal my soule Secondly here is Petitio remedii his prayer and petition for a remedy and that was to be healed Heal my soul Thirdly here is Confessio causae his confession of the cause of those wounds and that was his sin For I have sinned against thee I will begin with the first that is Designatio partis vulneratae his discovery of the wounded part The part that was wounded