Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	believe_v	faith_n	word_n	7,647	5	4.8713	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12182	Evangelicall sacrifices In xix. sermons. I. Thankfull commemorations for Gods mercy in our great deliverance from the papists powder-plot. 2. The successefull seeker. 3. Faith triumphant. 4. Speciall preparations to fit us for our latter end in foure funerall sermons. 5. The faithfull covenanter. 6. The demand of a good conscience. 7. The sword of the wicked. By the late learned and reverend divine, Rich. Sibbs. Doctor in Divinity, Mr. of Katherine Hall in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher to the honourable society of Grayes-Inne. The third tome. Published and perused by D. Sibbs owne appointment, subscribed with his hand to prevent imperfect copies after his decease.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1640 (1640)	STC 22491; ESTC S117285	286,033	622

acknowledge that they have Our covetousnesse and greedinesse of that that wee have not and yet would have it makes us that wee doe not see that we have already Wee all looke forward wee would have more and more and are not thankefull for the present grace The Patriarchs were not so they wanted many things that they desired heartily to have and yet they comforted themselves and died in faith though they did not receive the promises They saw them afarre off They saw them afarre off and were perswaded of them and imbraced them c. This is the order of Gods spirit first to open the eye to see and by sight to perswade and upon perswasion to stirre up the heart and affections to imbrace for good things are brought into the soule through the understanding by the spirituall sight of the understanding and from that into the will and affections by imbracing the things wee know this is GODS course daily therefore he saith they first saw them and then were perswaded of them and then imbraced them They see them afarre off Indeed they saw them a farre off they were not fulfilled till many yeares and generations after yet they see them By what eye By the eye of faith faith makes things present though in themselves they be farre off It is the nature of faith to make things that are absent to be present to the believing soule and it affects the soule somewhat as if it were present Wee know things worke not upon the soule but as present a danger that is many yeares to come it affects not the soule unlesse it be apprehended as present nothing affects the soule but as present Now there are two wayes of things being present One is when the things themselves be present that is when we shall be in heaven and enjoy Christ and all the joyes of heaven then the things are present themselves And then there is a presence of faith when faith apprehends the things promised to us as present faith makes the things present in somesort not in all respects for then faith were all one with vision and possession but in regard of certainty they are present and in regard of sound comfort therefore God gives other graces betweene faith and possession to strengthen and enable faith that it doe not sinke in the worke between faith and the full possession of the good things we believe we have patience and hope and many other sweete graces but all dispose the soule comfortably to waite for the accomplishment of the things beleeved Now though the presence of faith affect not so much as the presence of sight yet it doth affect What is the reason that a holy man is so much affected with heavenly things hee feeles no more joy many times than a wicked man It is the nature of faith that so represents them to him and sets before his eyes the excellencie of the things that hee sees them as present Faith hath her eye faith hath her sences faith hath feete of her owne whereby shee goes to Christ faith hath armes of her owne to graspe and to claspe Christ. Faith hath eares of her owne to heare the word of God and believe it faith hath eyes of her owne and what kinde of eyes to seethings afarre off to see things invisible to see things within the vayle to see things that are upward things that sence and reason can never reach unto Reason sees more then sence but faith sees more than reason Faith sees the resurrection of the body faith sees the glory in heaven that all the eyes in the world cannot see Faith correcteth the errour of reason reason corrects the errour of sense They saw him afarre off with the blessed eye of faith Faith hath an eye that sees a farre off it sees things remote both intime and place It sees things farre off inplace faith sees things in heaven it sees Christ there it sees our place provided for us there it sees God reconciled there by it we see our selves there because we shall be there ere long faith sees all this it breakes through and looks through all it hath most piercing beames the eye 〈◊〉 faith And it workes in an instant it goes 〈◊〉 heaven in a moment and sees Christ. And for distance of time the eye of faith it sees things past and things to come It see●… things past it sees the creation of the ●…ld it sees the redemption of us by Iesus Christ 〈◊〉 sees our sinnes there punished in Christ our su●…ety it sees us crucified with Christ Iesus 〈◊〉 sees all discharged by him Faith see●… 〈◊〉 the Sacrament when we take the bread 〈◊〉 hath recourse presently to the breaking of 〈◊〉 body of Christ and the shedding of the blo●… of Christ. Then Christ is crucifyed 〈◊〉 us 〈◊〉 dies to us when we believe Christ was 〈◊〉 fied for us and died for us faith makes it present And so for the time to come faith hath 〈◊〉 eye that lookes a farre off it sees the resu●…ction of the body and life everlasting 〈◊〉 sees the generall judgement it sees eternall happinesse in heaven it sees things afar●… o●… It is the Evidence of things not seene What is the reason of it It makes things not otherwise seene be seene and presently seene it gives a being to things It is a strange power that faith hath faith is the eye of the sanctified soule it is the light of the soule In the darke though things have a colo●… and a lustre in them yet till light co●…e to make them cleare they are all as if they 〈◊〉 not they are not seene but when the light discovers them then those things that were impossible to bee seene and had in them collour and lustre they come to be actually seene So it is wi●…h faith there is the happinesse of a Christian there is glory and grace reason it seeth not this here is a night of all these things if there be not light in the eye of faith now when there comes the promise of God as a light discovering them and the eye of faith to see all this then here is an evidence of the things a cleare sight of them which without faith are as excellent things in the night that no eye can see Faith is a further light a light beyond all a supernaturall heavenly light and sight it sees beyond all other eyes beyond the eye of the body or beyond the other eye of the soule which is reason Now this worke of faith is called sight among other respects for this that sight is the most capacious and comprehending sence it apprehends its object quickly and sight it works upon the affections so faith hath a quick eye sight it pierceth through the darke things of the world it pierceth through contraries Gods children though they see their estate oft times contrary to the promise as if God did not regard them yet they breake through

we would be glad to see all the dimensions of Gods love in Christ the height and bredth and depth and all So much for that They saw them a farre off They were perswaded of them It was such a sight of the things as was with convincing with perswasion And indeed this followes well upon sight for sight of all other sences perswades best hearing is not so perswasive as sight supernaturall sight brings forth supernaturall perswasion Sight is a convincing sense even outward sight so inward sight it is a convincing thing it perswades and sets downe the soule that a thing is so when a man sees it All the men in the world cannot perswade the weakest man in the world when it is day or night when the sunne shines or it is darke that it is not so when he sees it he will believe his owne eyes more than all the world besides And as it is in sensible things we believe our owne eyes so much more in spirituall things we believe our eyes When there is a spirituall light of revelation in the word discovering such things and also to spirituall light a spirituall eye when the spirit puts an eye into the soule to see supernaturall things that reason cannot attaine to then there is perswasion though all the world should perswade the soule that such a thing were not so it would say it is so it will believe its owne eyes If all the world should perswade a Christian that there is no such excellency in religion that his wayes are not good that he is but foolish c. he knowes the contrary and will not be scorned out of his religion and driven out of it by any contrary perswasion of men whom hee pitties though perhaps they are otherwise beyond him in the state of nature for sight it is a convincing thing Especially when there is some taste with sight for tast together with sight convince 〈◊〉 of the goodnesse of things as we see in those that lead their life by tasting and feeling The creatures maintaine their life by tasting some proportionable food fit for them So a Christian when once hee hath tasted of spirituall things the proper food of his soule when he hath seene and tasted of them he will never be driven out of his religion and his 〈◊〉 by any meanes when he hath seene and 〈◊〉 ed he is throughly perswaded A man must not dispute against tast when he hath tasted a thing to be so talke to him otherwise he saith I have tasted and feele and see it to be so and therefore wee see that after sight comes perswasion Now this perswasion is a supernaturall perswasion and it is Generall Particular A generall perswasion of the things of the generall truths and a particular personall perswasion of our interest in them When wee are perswaded that the truths are so generally that are revealed in the word of God and when we are perswaded by the help of the spirit that wee have a particular interest in them a portion in them And both are here meant They see them a farre off and were perswaded of them they were convinced both of the truth and goodnesse of them and of the truth and goodnesse to them in particular Now perswasion is a setled kind of knowledge Perswasion comes diverse wayes there be diverse degrees tending to perswasion First the poorest degree of the apprehension of things is conjecture a guessing that such a thing may bee so or otherwise but I guesse it rather to be so Beyond conjecture there is opinion when a man thinkes it is so upon more reasons swaying him one way and yet in opinion there is feare on the contrary that it may bee otherwise And the third degree beyond opinion is certaine knowledge when a man is not only conceited that the thing is so his opinion is so upon some reasons inducing him but hee knowes it by arguments and reasons that is science and knowledge when the mind is perswaded by arguments but that is not so much here meant the perswasion by argument There is another degree then of knowledge which is by the authority of the speaker a perswasion from thence when I know not the thing by the light of the thing so much because I see the reason of the thing but because I know such a one saith it that is the perswasion of faith When one is perswaded of a thing not so much out of his owne knowledge out of the principles of the thing setting out the causes of the thing as out of the credite of the person that speakes Now this perswasion riseth out of faith in the authority of the person when I believe a thing for the authority of the speaker it ariseth from the knowledge of him that speakes that he is able and that hee is true and that he is honest and good that he will not deceive because he is good and he will not bee deceived because he is wise we conceive that he is wise and holy and able with all one that we trust If together with this knowledge and perswasion from the authority and truth and goodnesse and wisdome of the speaker there be joy●…ed sense and experience we see it proved and when there is experience there is reason why wee should believe that he saith because wee have found the thing to be so So when there is both the authority of the speaker and some inward sense some sight and taste and feeling and experience of the thing spoken here comes that setled perswasion for hee is undoubtedly true that hath spoken it and I have found in some degree the thing true that hee hath spoken Now both are here meant in some degrees they saw the things a farre off both by the authority of the promise as likewise by their owne sight and some taste they had For God reserves not all for heaven God gives his children some taste and feeling some little joy and comfort the first fruits of the spirit here So they were perswaded from the authority of the speaker and some sense and feeling of the thing in somemeasure Now this perswasion hath its degrees There is a full perswasion And there is a perswasion that is not so full that is growing to further perswasion still And this perswasion hath degrees both in the generall perswasion of the truths themselves and in their particular interest for all Christians are not alike perswaded of divine truths themselves nor all Christians are not a like perswaded of their particular interest in those truths There bee degrees in both respects For the things themselves wee may grow stronger and stronger perswaded even as the light and our eye growes clearer the stronger is our sight so our perswasion while we are here may grow stronger and stronger It was strong in Abraham yet not so uniformely strong but that it was weaker sometimes then others