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A11881 Five sermons preached upon severall occasions (The texts whereof are set downe in the next page.) By Iohn Seller. Seller, John, 1592 or 3-1648. 1636 (1636) STC 22181; ESTC S101223 58,521 276

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men be miserable and poore and naked yet for the most part there is more gold more silver more precious stones more knowledge more piety more men that have given up their names to CHRIST this might be a strong motive to retaine them in a good opinion of the Church and state wherein they live to cause them to confesse with IACOB Surely the Lord was in this place and we were not aware of it Lastly that this may serve as a spurre to our Piety and devotion and cause us thus to dispute and argue with our selves Doth Religion daily grow up from strength to strength and shall I stand onely at a stay Is there every where more understanding more plentifull meanes of Salvation in the free and sincere dispensation of the Word and Sacraments and shall I bee a stranger in Israell and know little or nothing of these things Have the hyred Servants in my Fathers house now bread enough and shall I perish for hunger And indeed what stronger argument to perswade us to be proficients in Christs Schoole then to see and acknowledge the towardlines of our fellow schollers So then to draw all to a conclusion We read in the booke of Numbers when BALAK requested BALAAM Come curse me IACOB and come and defie Israell that BALAAM returnes him answer from the mouth of GOD How shall I curse whom GOD hath not cursed or how shall I defie whom the Lord hath not defied Thus in the handling of this common place of CHRISTS comming unto Iudgment if the heate of some mens zeale shall call upon mee to curse IACOB and defie Israel and in the voyce of thunder threaten the suddaine executions of Gods wrath my faire answer is How can I curse whom from my heart I am perswaded God hath not cursed or how can I defie whom the Lord hath not defied All that I will say is this that as the generall goodnesse and religion of this Land may cause us according to the wonted mercies of Almighty God to conceive a faire hope that there are no generall visitations neare at hand so I beseech you the better to vindicate the not unquestionable truth of so good a Paradox let mee crave the ayd of your Piety to make a strong party against any man that shall oppose us and let each single man in singlenesse of heart be so carefull of his owne particular that wee may all daily present our selves as a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God that wee may come behind our Fathers in no guift that we may bee confirmed unto the end and found blamelesse at the comming of our Lord IESVS CHRIST Amen Serm. III THE THIRD SERMON IOHN 1.16 And Grace for grace WHen the fulnesse of time was come so God loved the World that hee sent forth his owne Sonne and that which sets forth the rarenesse of this Love in this fulnesse of time when the fulnesse of Sinne did now cry for the full vyals of GODS wrath behold where Sinne abounded Grace did much more abound Vers 14. GOD sent forth his Sonne full of Grace and Truth And that this fulnesse of his might not serve to upbraid the empty world and to condemne it but that the world therby might be saved it was not onely Plenitudo abundantiae a filling fulnesse but plenitudo redundantia a flowing fulnesse For of his fulnesse have wee all received and Grace for grace In which words two Parts in the generall may bee observed First the Fountaine of blisse from whence all Happinesse is derived to us Of his fulnesse have wee all received and secondly in my Text the streames which flow from this Fountaine commended to us by way of excellencie in the emphasis of this little particle And Of his fulnesse have wee all received And that of no ordinary common fulnesse nay not onely Truth for truth a great happinesse to know our Masters will but that then which the goodnesse of the Father hath vouchsafed heere no greater blessing to his own Sonne Grace for grace that by the fulnesse of Truth knowing the will of our heavenly Father by the fulnesse of Grace wee may bee so happie to fulfill it Now because the words of my Text will hardly be divided for they are coincident Grace and grace it shall suffice me to make a division of the sence thereof and three expositions there are all concurring to make one compleat Commentarie which shall serve mee in stead of so many Parts in the handling whereof I hope I shall not need to crave your attention surely the very name of Grace the most acceptable blessing which next unto his Sonne GOD ever gave unto his Saints will challenge it and upon the delivery of so happie an Ambassage from Heaven solicite your thoughts with the like meditation which old ELI put into the month of SAMUEL Speake LORD for thy servant heareth Now then three Expositions there are and the first is this Of his fulnesse have wee all received and Grace for grace that is variety of Graces some one grace some another For as no man hath receiv'd the fulnesse of CHRIST but of his fulnesse onely so of his fulness every man receives not grace alike but Grace for grace Though the Spirit be the same and the same Lord sayth St. PAVL yet there are diversities of gifts and difference of administrations and GOD hath set in his Church some Prophets some Apostles some Teachers some Interpreters For the Church of CHRIST is a mysticall body and a Body sayth hee is not one member but many And as in the Naturall body all motion the Physitian will tell you comes from the Head and yet every member hath a different motion by it selfe So in our Spirituall head CHRIST IESVS wee all live and move and have our being and yet divers are the motions of the different members of this body Minut. Faelix Simil● universi videmur tamen dissimiles inter se universi invenimur As in the Bodies so in the Soules of men also there is a kind of unlike likenesse and not onely in the graces of illumination but of Sanctification too every man almost hath a different manifestation of one and the same Spirit In my Fathers house sayth CHRIST there are many mansions as in his upper House of glory many mansions so in his lower house of Grace also many mansions Some wee see more humble others more temperate some more devout others more charitable some more mercifull others more just In ABRAHAM wee reade the singular commendations of Faith in IOB of Patience in MOSES of Meekness in PHINEES of Zeale not that those graces are infus'd alone but oft-times eminent alone For as a candle which enlightens the whole roome within shineth onely through the window to those which are without so in divers men there are different kinds of claristories wherby the graces of GOD which inlighten the whole Soule within doe yet but in part shine foorth to others Et