Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	faith_n	overcome_v	victory_n	10,069	5	9.2408	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

to equall those worthy examples of repentance for I think it not onely lawfull but commendable for every one to desire the best gifts wee may desire to equall and if wee can to excell David Mary Magdalen or any other provided alwayes that wee submit our wils to the will of God and when wee see that it is not his pleasure to conferre upon us such gifts as he conferred upon them wee must not therefore murmure against him nor work our owne disquiet and trouble by making such unprofitable comparisons but giving thanks to God for what wee have let us comfort our selves with that considering alwaies that all sorrow whether it be in a great or small quantity if it proceeds from grace is able to save our souls And this is the second condition necessary to a true confession that is sorrow and true contrition of heart The third condition necessary to a true confession is amendment of life Although a man confesseth his sins every day yet if hee forsakes them not his confession is but a meer formality and this condition is required in many places of the Scripture but I will onely name a place or two In the 28th chapter of the Proverbs and the 13th verse it is said Hee that covereth his sinnes shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Not every hypocrite that makes a formall confession but he that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy And again Ezra 10.11 Ezra saith unto the people Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers and doe his pleasure and separate your selves from the people of the land and from the strange wives Hee doth not onely stirre up the people to confesse their sins to God but to doe his pleasure also and to separate themselves from the people of the land with whom they had contracted affinity and to put away their strange wives without which their confession had been but vain It is I know a common opinion at this time that an actuall amendment of life is not necessary and essentiall to confession but that a purpose of amendment with faith in Christ Jesus is sufficient and although they commit the same sins every day yet if they resolve to amend after they have committed them many think themselves if they should die after such resolutions in a good and safe condition But this beloved is a grosse and manifest delusion and contrary to those places of Scripture that have been already alledged and to many other which might be alledged to this purpose It is true indeed that faith in Christ Jesus if it could be in any man without an actuall amendment is able to save him but herein they deceive themselves in that they think true faith consistent with bare and naked resolutions and not alwayes accompanied with an actuall amendment for true faith will shew it selfe in action and cannot be perfected and known by bare and naked resolutions Whatsoever is born of God saith Saint John overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith 1 John 5.4 By true faith therefore a man overcometh the world now how can hee be said to overcome the world that hath not forsaken his sins for a victory is won by action and not by bare and naked resolutions Have drunkards think you overcome the world Have adulterers unclean persons swearers and usurers overcome the world No they are overcome themselves and have not overcome the world Take heed therefore yee deceive not your selves think not yee have faith before yee find the fruits of faith in your life and conversation I presume there are none here but will say they have faith but I pray God many amongst you be not deluded Should I demand of you whether you beleeve in God or whether ye beleeve an heaven and an hell and a resurrection from the dead I dare say you would all answer Yes But then if I could look into your lives and see your secret practices I am afraid I should find many of you to be such as if yet beleeved no such matter I say If I could look into your lives I am afraid I should find many of you to be such as if yee beleeved neither heaven not hell nor the resurrection of the dead nor any other article of faith for wherein doe many amongst us exceed an infidell that beleeves none of these things Is it possible that infidelity should produce as good effects in them as faith in you Is faith so sluggish a vertue that it can he still and not be active No be sure if thy faith breaks not into action it is but a dead faith In the 11th chapter to the Hebrews there are many commended for faith but they are all said to have done something by it It is said By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice then Cain and so of all the rest it is said they did something by faith but there are none which are said to have made good resolutions by faith and to have kept none of them True faith therefore must be known and perfected by action and not by bare and naked resolutions And this is the third condition necessary to a true confession that is amendment of life The fourth condition necessary to a true confession is satisfaction I shall not need to prove this condition necessarie because it is manifestly included in the former for there can be no amendment without satisfaction he that doth wrong another and doth not repair the injury cannot be said to amend but sinneth against justice for justice giveth to every one his due which he refuseth to doe that will not restore his neighbours goods or his neighbours credit when hee hath wrongfully deprived him of them Now therefore let every one examine his confession and see whether it hath all these conditions or no First whether hee hath made a diligent examination of his whole life and confessed all his particular and individuall sins as far as hee is able Secondly whether his confession be joyned with true sorrow and contrition of heart Thirdly whether hee hath for saken the sins which hee hath confessed Fourthly whether hee hath made satisfaction as far as hee is able for all the wrongs and injuries he hath done if his confession hath all these conditions it is good but if it want any of them hee hath but plaid the formall hypocrite And so much of the second part of Davids confession which is his confession in respect of the act I come now to the last part which is his confession in respect of the object I have sinned against thee The object against whom this sin was committed is not exprest in the words of my Text but is implied in this word thee yet wee shall not need to goe farre to seek it for it is expressed in the same verse I said Lord be mercifull unto mee beale my soule for I have sinned against thee It is

truths as entertain and second his humour but hee that hath the light of grace delights equally in all truths though they seem directly to oppose his profit honour pleasure and all his other desires Hee that hath this supernaturall gift can say like David of all divine truths More to be desired are they then gold yea then much fine gold sweeter also then the honey and the honey-comb Psal 19.10 Whosoever then finds in himselfe this pious affection to faith and to all the truths that it reveales may assure himselfe his vnderstanding is enlightened by grace but hee that finds it not whatsoever hee beleeves his soule was never touched by the influence of this divine light Men doe generally love such things as they possesse themselves they which have faith cannot but love faith it is our Saviour Christs manner of arguing with his disciples If yee were of the world the world would love his own but ye are not of the world therefore the world hateth you John 15.19 The summe and abstract of our Saviours speech is this The world loves not a spirituall profession because spirituall things are none of their owne if spirituall things were their own they would love a spirituall profession So I may argue with others If faith be their owne they cannot but love faith and the truths which it reveales And this is the second thing to which Davids petition must be applyed namely to the understanding Now in the third place this petition must be applyed to the will Heal my will For among all the wounds which the soule hath received there are none greater or more mortall then those that are in the will the wound of Malice is worse then either the wound of Infirmity or of Ignorance and therefore that must be healed before the soule can be in a safe condition The will indeed is in a better case after the affections and vnderstanding be healed then it was before for being an indifferent faculty of it selfe it is moved by the affections and therefore when the affections are healed it hath not such strong provocations to sin and being a blind faculty of it self it receives information from the understanding and therefore when the understanding is healed it hath not such false dictates to make it erre Yet this is not sufficient to heal the will the will hath his proper wound and so must have his proper cure And here the manner of healing is still by supernaturall grace Grace hath heat for the will as well as light for the understanding otherwise it could not heal the soul sufficiently For the Divell hath light but he hath no heat his name is Lucifer which signifies a carrier of light but it had been better for him saith S. Bernard si ignifer magis esset quàm Lucifer Bernard de verb. Isai proph serm 3. if hee had been a carrier of heat rather then a carrier of light light without heat doth him no good to beleeve and not to love doth but increase his misery But grace hath both light and heat light whereby it begets faith in the vnderstanding and heat wherby it begets love in the will and this love is the chiefe of all the vertues the best and most excellent effect of grace I know there are some which give faith the precedency whom I leave to enjoy their opinion for my selfe as in all other things so for my part in spirituall graces I submit my will to Gods will as knowing the least is more then I am worthy of yet my prayers shall alwayes be to have love in the excesse which I will not onely desire above all other spirituall graces but above all them and all the joyes of heaven together Faith is the foundation upon which wee must build our love for how can wee love God as we ought if wee beleeve not in him as wee ought and yet love may exceed faith in dignity as the superstructure may exceed the foundation in rich and costly materials But I intend not to speak of the excellency of love in generall love hath many operations in via whilest we are in the way to heaven besides the healing of the will and it hath many operations in patria when wee are in heaven where the will shall be perfectly healed but all these are out of my Text and shall be out of my discourse I will onely speak of the operation that love hath in healing the will and love when it flowes from grace hath an operation in this respect above all other things for that alone is able to work true repentance in the will to melt it with sorrow for sin to make it flexible and to mollifie that stiffenesse and that hardnesse that is in it Yet as Reason may work upon the affections and upon the vnderstanding so it may work also upon the will but failes as much in healing this as in healing the other faculties There is a naturall repentance which springs from naturall reason for hee that hath received many temporall blessings at the hands of God cannot chuse if hee followes the dictate of right reason but love him and if hee loves him hee cannot but be grieved when hee sins against him for hee that loveth will grieve for the least offence committed against the thing beloved Yet this sorrow that springs from naturall reason is not sufficient to heale the will For first it failes in the cause A naturall man may be sorrowfull for his sins but hee hath not a fountain of sorrow that flowes and streames continually that love that springs from naturall reason is soon extinguished and when the cause ceaseth sorrow that is the effect proceeding from it must needs cease But that love that proceeds from grace is more durable it is able to perpetuate sorrow hee that is endued with this love hath a constant habit of repentance and if at any time hee sins through infirmity his soule becomes immediately an house of mourning an Hadad rimmon a valley of lamentation Secondly It failes in the effect That sorrow that springs from naturall reason cannot convert the will and make it turn from sin a naturall man may be sorrowfull for his sinnes past and have a full resolution to abstain from sin for the time to come but he cannot actuate and performe his resolutions for reason may inable a man to make good resolutions but onely grace can inable him to keep them Now when amendment of life is not joyned with sorrow for sinne it rather makes new wounds then heales the old Qui plangit peccatum iterum committit peccatum quasi si quis laterem lavet crudum quem quantò magis laverit tantò magis lutum fecerit saith Isidore hee that mourneth for his sin and yet ceaseth not to commit sin is like him that washeth a tile stone that is not well burnt which is made more dirty by being often washed Hee that is sorrowfull for sinne and resolves to amend begins well but