Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
glory_n	ghost_n	son_n	trinity_n	2,658	5	10.0265	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65594	One and twenty sermons preach'd in Lambeth Chapel Before the Most Reverend Father in God Dr. William Sancroft, late Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury. In the years MDCLXXXIX. MDCXC. By the learned Henry Wharton, M.A. chaplain to His Grace. Being the second and last volume.	Wharton, Henry, 1664-1695.; White, Robert, 1645-1703, engraver.	1698 (1698)	Wing W1566; ESTC R218467	236,899	602

all Temptations That Excuse is overthrown by the constant Continuation of the kind Influences of the Holy Ghost We receive not now indeed those miraculous Gifts with which the Apostles were once endued Nor is it necessary that we should receive them Those contribute not directly to the securing of our Salvation which may be equally obtained without them and lost with them All that is necessary all that is convenient for us is yet continued to us The Holy Ghost still diffuseth his inestimable Benefits to the Souls of Men excites them by inward Motions confirms them by his Assistance perfects them by his Graces which least we should doubt that he still plentifully bestoweth on us for want of some external Assurance he hath instituted the Holy Sacraments more particularly the Eucharist as visible Pledges of his Distribution of Grace to all faithful Believers herein bestowing no less a Benefit to the Members of the Church than he did when he formerly descended as upon this day attended with mighty Signs and Miracles with the Gift of Tongues and Cure of Diseases We are assured that altho' any one speak with the tongues of Men and Angels altho' he be able to remove Mountains yet it is possible for him to miscarry and become a cast-away But to him that receiveth this Holy Sacrament worthily to him that bewails his former Sins and seriously endeavours to reform them to him that enters a new into Covenant with God and lays hold of the Merits of his Crucified Saviour in the Participation of these sacred Mysteries to him that herein reconciles himself to Christ his head by a lively Faith and Repentance and to all the Members of the Church by unfeigned Charity it is not possible to miss his desired end the Salvation of his Soul because God who cannot lie hath promised it by his Word and Spirit the Son hath sealed it by his Blood and the Holy Ghost confirmed it as at first by his Descent upon this day so now also by the sensible effects of his Grace which he diffuseth to all worthy Communicants To these three Persons but one God Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Power and Glory henceforth and for evermore The Second SERMON ON TRINITY-SUNDAY 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPPEL 1 Cor. II. 11. The things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God THE Doctrine of the Holy and Ever-blessed Trinity in Honour of which this Day hath for some Ages been Instituted and Celebrated in the Church is that alone among all the Principles of Christianity which carrieth an undeniable difficulty along with it and hath been always made use of by the Enemies of the Cross to oppose the Revelation of Christ. Other Doctrines such as the Resurrection of the Body Incarnation of the Son of God and such like may appear Incredible but at the same time it cannot be denied that they are possible And when the Motives of Faith are added to them must by all men rightly Judging be allowed to be credible But it is pretended that the Existence of a Trinity of Persons in the same Divine Nature is even contradictory and therefore impossible that it overthroweth the Primary Notions of our Understanding and allowed Principles of Reason Even many Professors of Christianity who acknowledge all the Revelations of Christ to be true and believe him to have acted by a Divine Mission yet Stumble at this Stone of Offence and therefore to avoid it have taken up unwarrantable Opinions plainly repugnant to the whole Tenour of the Gospel as the Arrians of old and Socinians in later Days That we therefore may not be scandalized with the same Difficulties that we may be able to resist the Delusions and even overcome the Prejudices of these Men it will not be amiss to consider as far as we may with Safety and Modesty that Doctrine which is the peculiar business of this Day For altho ' it becomes us not too narrowly to pry into the Secrets of Heaven and rashly determine Matters the cognizance of which belongeth not to us yet since it hath pleased God to reveal this Mystery to Mankind and make it an Article of Faith it now ceaseth to be a Secret of Heaven and it is both our Duty and Concern to enquire into the Credibility of it For the Christian Religion debars us not from a scrupulous search into the Truth of her Doctrines and placeth no Merit in a blind belief of her Propositions It is accepted indeed by God as an act of Obedience and Merit I mean Merit in a large sence to believe his Promises of a Resurrection and eternal Life after Death as it was imputed unto Abraham for Righteousness that trusting in the Promises of God of giving him a better Inheritance in another Land he forsook his own Country and his Father's House although neither we nor he have received the Assurance of those Promises by the Evidence of Sence He had not yet seen the Land of Canaan and we do not yet enjoy the Possession of those Glorious Promises Notwithstanding all this God neither requires nor accepts an irrational Belief in Man but as He at first endued him with reasonable Faculties so He expects he should make use of them to his Glory which is by no other thing so much diminish'd as by affixing to him Revelations repugnant to Reason and including Contradictions and that the Doctrine of the Trinity is not such I will endeavour to manifest as plainly as the obscurity of the Subject will permit The Foundations of my intended Discourse are laid down by the Apostle in the Text and in the Context of it which therefore it will be necessary to explain and therein I desire you to accompany me by looking upon the place The Apostle had in the first eight Verses of this Chapter declared the nature and simplicity of his Preaching and Doctrine that it was not recommended by pompous and affected Ornaments of Rhetorick that it depended not upon Sillogisms and nice Speculations as did that of the Gentile Philosophers who were esteemed the only knowing Men of the Age that the Matters declared by him were not such as might be found out by the natural Light of Reason or when found out were such as would be applauded by the World as extraordinary flights of Speculation They were not the Wisdom of Men nor the Wisdom of this World Ver. 5 and 6. But the Wisdom of God Matters not to be found out by the sole Guidance of Reason but deliver'd by the infallible Revelation of God who had attested the Truth of them by the wonderful effects of his Power and Spirit manifested in the Miracles and successful Preaching of Christ and his Apostles And least it should seem incredible to any that the Matters of Divine Revelation should be inconceivable to Human Reason acting by its own Power he sheweth us in the ninth Verse That this was no more than was foretold by the ancient Prophets whose Veracity was allowed by

But these Men proceeded chiefly upon those Objections which we have already Refuted and upon unreasonable and forced Interpretations of Scripture which they wrested to their sense while they endeavour to solve the Difficulties of this Doctrine by removing it wholly But while they attempted this they involved themselves in far greater Difficulties and even in flat Contradictions For God having commanded that all should Worship the Son even as they do the Father and themselves never daring to deny that divine Adoration was to be paid to Christ hereby they have been forced to maintain that divine Adoration is to be given to a Being which is not God which is a most palpable Contradiction infinitely greater than all the Difficulties of the Trinity which they so much dreaded For an act of Divine Adoration consists chiefly in an awful conception of the Infinity of that Nature which is to be adored and therefore cannot be paid to any Object but under the Notion of God So that in adoring Christ with Divine Honour the Mind must consider him as God while at the same time it denieth him to be God which is a plain Repugnance of Conception and a manifest Contradiction So that all the Arguments of Christianity remain in full force in favour of the Doctrine of the Trinity and those Difficulties which may attend it being as we have shewed far less evident than are those Arguments it remains that if we act rationally we assent unto it I am sensible that what I have said in this matter is more obscure than Discourses from this place are wont to be But that could not be avoided in a subject of this Nature I hope it may be of some use to you not only in confirming the steadiness of your Faith in general in manifesting the excellency of the Christian Religion which requireth nothing to be believed repugnant to Reason and in giving you some Rules for the conduct of your Understanding in matters of Religion but also in arming you against the Snares and Delusions of a Pestilent Sect which hath very lately taken advantage from our Divisions to revive their Objections and publickly to propose them May what hath been said conduce to the confirmation of your Faith to the clearing of your Thoughts to the removing of your Doubts if any such be and therein to the Glory of the eternal and ever-blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God To whom be ascribed all Honour Might Majesty Dominion and Adoration henceforth and for evermore The Third SERMON Preach'd on the 9th of June 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPPEL Esther V. 13. Yet all this availeth me nothing AMONG all the Errors and false Perswasions to which Man in this mortal State is subject none are more dangerous and at the same time more common than those relating to the happiness of his Nature All the rational parts of the Creation propose to themselves and the irrational part are directed by their Creator to some supreme end The more ignoble part fail not to obtain their end being directed by an infallible hand while Man the most noble part of the visible Creation miscarrieth in the acquisition of it It is a rational Soul capacious Faculties and the uncontrouled use of a Free-Will which bestow on Man a possibility of being truly happy Yet such is the Misfortune of Mankind that even these are the occasion of his Fall and Miscarriage He sets the Faculties of his Soul on work to invent new Methods of Happiness he runs through all the Pleasures whether of Sense or Reason of which his Nature is capable he fixeth his desire upon those which most of all strike his Imagination or gratifie his Senses he applieth himself to obtain them by the use of his Free-Will When he hath discovered the Vanity and Unsatisfactoriness of one End he invents another he grows wanton in his Desires and the more he indulgeth his roving Thoughts the farther he is removed from the possession of his true End A miserable Calamity indeed that Man alone should miscarry in his supreme End yet a Calamity which cannot be denied a Calamity which hath involved the far greater part of Mankind who know no other End than what is terminated in this Life seek no other Happineth than what ariseth from the report of their Senses and expireth with them Many have indeed by the excellency of their Thoughts rescued themselves from this common Calamity and all Christians are by the benefit of Revelation delivered from it They know a better and more lasting Happiness they are not unacquainted with the supreme End of their Nature yet by a miserable corruption of Judgment they are betrayed to neglect this End to stifle their Knowledge and over-rule the Convictions of their own Minds This ariseth from an unjust esteem of Corporeal and Temporal Happiness which recommending it self to the Soul of Man by the impression of Sense diverteth it from the consideration of a better and more noble End taketh root in his Imagination raiseth his Passions and by their assistance continueth its Possession Nothing therefore will conduce more to the retrieving a just conception of real Happiness to rectifie the Thoughts and secure the End of Man than to obviate the deceitfulness to defeat the delusions of sensual and temporal Happiness by manifesting how unsatisfactory it is in its own Nature how unable to fill the capacious Faculties of our Souls how vain and trifling how unworthy our study and desire This will effectually perswade us to raise our Thoughts and apply our utmost diligence to the acquisition of a more noble End When we shall be convinced of the insufficiency of that End which withdraws us from the pursuit of the other when we shall perceive that no real Happiness will arise from thence that however it may flatter the Sense and please the Imagination it will fill no one Faculty of the Soul To effect this Conviction therefore the Scripture makes use of various Arguments the uncertainty of Life the mutability of Fortune the loss of an eternal Reward forfeited by a blind pursuit of worldly Happiness the Vanity of it when obtained the miserable Consequences of it when expired but above all the Examples of worldly Men who after they had obtained all which they could desire in this Life rested unsatisfied or became unhappy were divested of their Felicity and reduced to Misery or amidst all their Enjoyments by a conviction of Judgment which they could not resist declared and confessed the emptiness and vanity of that Felicity which themselves had so much courted and others so much admir'd An eminent Instance of this is that of Haman in my Text who amidst all his Honours and Titles his Wealth and the Favours of his Prince amidst all the Pleasures which this Life can receive convinced by undeniable experience confess'd that all this availed him nothing That both these Considerations therefore both the nature of the Thing and the evidence of Experience confirming

more having more largely treated of it in my Discourse upon Easter-day which I will not repeat The Nineteenth SERMON Preach'd on June 1st 1690. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Mark XVI 19. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into Heaven and sat on the right hand of God WE lately celebrated the Memory of the Ascension of our Lord and the Offices of our Church direct us to employ our thoughts upon it in this intermediate time between that and Whitsunday To do this we are not only induced by that near Relation which it bears to Christ who by it took his last Farewel of his Disciples and entred upon the Possession of his Kingdom but also by those eminent Benefits which the whole Church received from it the Gift of the Holy Ghost the Confirmation of Faith and the increase of Hope In Discoursing of it I will confine my self to these three Considerations I. The necessity and convenience of the Ascension of Christ. II. The Truth of it III. The Advantages and Benefits which we receive by it I. That it was necessary our Lord should leave the Earth and ascend into Heaven himself often declared and in Joh. XVI 7. gives the Primary Reason of it Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is convenient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you The Mission of the Comforter that is the Holy Ghost was absolutely necessary and the necessity of it confessed by the Disciples of Christ yet could not this be effected untill Christ should ascend into Heaven It was convenient for the Apostles that the Comforter should be sent as by whom they received a most invincible Confirmation of their Faith and their Hopes What greater Consolation can be imagined to Disciples afflicted for the Departure of their beloved Lord than to receive such an infallible Assurance of his Being placed in Power and Glory in Heaven as did arise from the eminent Operations of Divine Power brought down by the Holy Ghost at his Intercession What stronger Confirmation of their Faith could they receive than that the Promises of their Master concerning a Comforter were effected which demonstrated the Truth of all he had said the actual Possession of that Glory which was vailed in the Infirmities of his humane Nature while he conversed upon Earth and the Prevalency of his Intercession with God the Father in their behalf What more could be desired to assure them of the continuance of their Masters Love after his Departure or to enable them successfully to discharge that Office of converting an unbelieving World which was imposed on them than that such Gifts should be conferred on them as were never before vouchsafed unto Mankind the knowledge of all Tongues the Faculty of speaking Eloquently and Boldly and the Power of working Miracles All these Reasons made it convenient and desirable to the Apostles that the Comforter should be sent unto them To the whole Church this was much more necessary which without that Mission could never have had Existence being founded and maintained by those Divine Gifts and Influences which were derived from thence Yet neither could the Apostles nor the Church have been Blessed with this so necessary so often Promised and so much to be desired Mission of the Holy Ghost had not our Lord first ascended into Heaven and there by his Power and Intercession have procured it The Comforter as he was to be the Advocate the Deputy to plead the Cause of Christ on Earth could not naturally take place but in his Absence and the very Mission of him as it was an Act of Regal Power could not be administred by Christ until he had taken Possession of his Kingdom which commenced at his Ascension into Heaven Nor is this the only Reason which made it convenient for the Church that our Lord should remove his visible Presence from us but the Possibility at least the increase of Man's Reward did depend upon it The Design of the coming of the Messias so long expected was known and confessed to be to restore the lost Happiness of Mankind to redeem them from their former Misery and to advance them to a State of Glory In prosecution of this Design if we consider either the Wisdom of God or the Nature of Man it could not but be expected that this Happiness should be affixed to certain Rules consequent to certain Conditions to be performed by Man not indifferently bestowed on all nor yet on any without Respect to their peculiar Merits The Application of it was to be directed and determined according to the right use of Reason and Free-will in every Man The whole of this consists in Obedience to the Laws of God and one great Branch of it in assenting to his Authority and believing all his Revelations And as an Assent to all the Revelations of God made at all times was the Duty of Man so more especially an Assent to those last and most considerable Revelations made by his own Son incarnate was required of Man and was farther intended to qualifie him for the Reception of that super-natural Happiness which was by him to be conveyed unto the World Since no greater Evidence of a right use of Reason and Veneration of the Divine Majesty could be offered than to inquire after to Assent to and obey the Revelations communicated by him It would be tedious and unnecessary to repeat those great Commendations of this eminent Act of right Reason call'd Faith and those many Promises of Reward annexed to it which may be found in the Scripture But from the whole it appeareth that this was to be the principal Condition of the Justification and therein of the Happiness of Man That this Act therefore might be the more Illustrious and might be Crowned with a more noble Reward it was convenient that Christ should withdraw his visible Presence from the World and therein give way to the Operation of Faith which is the Evidence of things not seen Had Christ continued for ever upon Earth in that glorious Majesty which was to take place after his Resurrection had he presented to the Senses of every Man sensible Demonstrations of his Divine Power in that Case to have believed on him would have been no more praise worthy no more meritorious than to assent to the ordinary Reports of Sense Who ever pretended to have acquired Merit by believing an Axiom of Mathematical Demonstrations Or who ever thought it an Argument of a true and just ●anagement of the Will and Understanding to believe that one Colour differeth from another or that the Sun doth shine These things strike our Senses and force a Belief whether we will or no in this Case to offend while the Soul enjoys its Reason and the Body the Organs of Sense is not so much as possible To have believed the Divinity of Christ while the Sense of an illustrious