Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n
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A56693
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A sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. Thomas Grigg, B.D. and rector of St. Andrew-Undershaft, Septemb. 4, 1670 by Symon Patrick.
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing P838; ESTC R4850
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30,751
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63
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they had this house not made with hands in present possession They speak as men that belong to two Countreyes and have estates in this and in another Kingdom who if they leave one are owners of Lands Revenews and Houses elsewhere Such men may say we have a building and still go to their own when they have left or lost one of their habitations Though they cannot dwell in both their houses at once yet they call them both theirs And when they remain in one they reckon the other their own though it be at a distance from them and they must travell a great way before they can be in it In this manner the Apostle discourses of their habitation with God He made account it belonged to them and might be called theirs though they lived as yet in another place For 1. They had a right and title to it And 2. They had good Deeds and Evidences as I have told you to shew for it 3. Which proved that it was setled on them by the Will and Testament of Jesus Christ their Lord and Master 4. To which they had the witness of the Spirit in their hearts which was the Earnest of the inheritance whereby they were sealed to the day of redemption 5. So that in conclusion they might lay claim to it when they departed this world They might challenge it as their own and lay hold on eternal life by vertue of his Promise and that Testament of his which he had written and sealed with his own blood and further confirmed by his Resurrection from the dead and the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven And therefore our Lord himself uses the self-same language assuring his Disciples that his Doctrine being heartily received was a feed of immortal life in them and knit them so to himself that they could no more perish than He who lives for ever Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day He dwelleth in me and I in him As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me John 6. 47. 54 56 57. USE The proper Use of which Doctrine is contained in those words of this Apostle 1 Cor. 15. ult Therefore my dearly beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Which words instruct and put us in mind 1. That we must work in this earthly house wherein we dwell We are in a place of labour and not of idleness and sport There is some serious business in which we are to be imployed if we mean to approve our selves good Tenants to the great Lord of the world and be preferred by him to better possessions 2. And that this work is the work of the Lord which we must carefully attend or else our pains and travell is but a busie idleness We were not sent hither only to toil and sweat for the goods of this life Nor do we acquit our selves like honest men meerly by diligence in the works of our Calling and making a careful provision for our selves and families But our business is to mortifie all immoderate desires after riches or any other earthly enjoyments to purge our selves from covetousness from lust from intemperance from envy and wrath from pride and uncharitableness and all other sins to acknowledge the bounty of our Creator and Redeemer to live by faith in God to love him above all things to resign our selves intirely to his wise and holy will to imitate him in doing of good and faithfully to acquit our selves in all other duties which he expects from us For as he is a good Tenant who performs his contract and makes good the Covenant that is between him and the person of whom he holds so he is a good Christian who uprightly and sincerely endeavours to perform the duties wherein he stands engaged to our Lord by whose will he hath promised to be governed and not by his own We are all bound to him in a very sacred Covenant and stand obliged to him in several services If we desire then to have his favour and hope for a kind reception by him into a better habitation when we remove from hence let us tye our selves strictly to the work which he hath prescribed us and use our best diligence that we may never violate the bonds that are between us For which end it highly concerns us to remember the Vows we made at our entrance into his service to read often over the tenor of the Covenant which we then signed and sealed diligently to peruse those Sacred Writings to which we have consented and to understand compleatly the blessed Gospel of Christ which tells us that not every one who calls him Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but be that doth the will of his Father which is in Heaven Which will he hath faithfully reported to us and assured us that he is the way the truth and the life whose Doctrine and example if we follow not we vainly hope to inherit the Kingdom of God In short there is great reason we should work because we expect some reward and that we should do his work and live up to the Rules of his Religion because we expect this Reward from our Lord. Nay 3 We must be abundant in the work of the Lord labouring to purifie our selves as he is pure to be merciful as he is merciful and to be filled with all the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Jesus unto the glory and praise of God The reason is because we expect such a great and plentiful reward from our Lord who hath given us exceeding great and pretious promises that by these we might be partakers of a divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust And therefore giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temgerance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindedness and to brotherly kindness charity For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And I may add that if these things be in us and abound they will highly raise and enoble our natures before we arrive at those heavenly places For this poor earthly house wherein we now are will by this means be turned into a goodly Temple So this Apostle calls even the body of holy Christians the Temple of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. What a glorious change is this What a strange alteration doth the new Creature make Corpus istud Platonicâ sententiâ carcer Apostolicâ Templum cum in Christo est as Tertullian speaks in his Book of the Soul This
to them by all these means that he that hath the Son i. e. effectually believes in Christ and is his faithful follower hath life And these things they have written unto us that believe on the Name of the Son of God that we may know that we have eternal life 1 John 5. 12 13. For faith is a certain and sure way of knowledge as well as any else And our Faith relies you see on the Testimony of the Men of God who did not follow cunningly devised fables when they made known the power and coming of our Lord Jesus but were eye witnesses of his Majesty c. 2 Pet. 1. 16 17. And as St. Paul speaks in Ver. 2. of the fore-going Chapter had renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God There appeared nothing of fraud and guile in any of their speeches or actions but the greatest simplicity ingenuity and singleness of heart that can be imagined They abominated all dishonest dealing and did not pretend to receive things from the Lord when they were but the devices or dreams of their own brains But as the Apostle tells them in this Epistle Chap. 12. 12. the signs of his being sent of God were wrought among them in all patience in signs and wonders and mighty deeds That which they had heard which they had seen with their eyes which they had looked upon and their hands had handled of the word of life they declared unto the world For the life was manifested saith St. John and we have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us 1. John 1. 1 2 3. Let us not therefore be faithless but believe the testimony of men so well assured For to think that there is no habitation for us in the Heavens after we depart from these earthly houses because we were never there is as foollish and senseless as if a man but poorly bred and that had never stirred beyond the door of his Cottage should imagine that all the goodly buildings he hears of at London or which are shown him from the top of an Hill some Miles distance from it are but so many Clouds and phantasms in the Air and have no real being Let us but a little awaken our souls to look beyond this house of clay Let us but go out of doors in our thoughts and meditations stretching our minds further than the things of sense and we shall clearly discern in this light of God which hath shone from Heaven upon us that there is a far more glorious state in a building not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For these things saith the Amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of the Creation of God Rev. 3. 14. These things say the Servants of Christ the Stewards of the Mysteries of God in all things approving themselves to be his Ministers 1 Cor. 4. 1. 2. 6. 4. We ought therefore to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip How shall we escape if we neglect such great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his will 2 Heb. 1. 3 4. II. And that you may be moved to the greater attension to these things and not to slight the report of our Lord himself and of men chosen of God to be his witnesses give me leave to speak a few words of the other remaining Heads mentioned at the beginning which will add some strength and force to what you have heard It is considerable then that this was a matter generally known a thing wherein they were all agreed They had a knowledge as I have told you of them and not a meer opinion It was not only a probable but a certain truth which they preached to the world And yet an opinion that is not private but common is very much respected and carries no small Authority with it We are all very much over-awed by that which is universally received and inclined to follow that which is every where had in reverence How much more then is this to be regarded and worthy of all acceptation which stands upon such solid foundations and to which there was also a common consent They were all satisfied that this was the very truth of God there was no dispute or division among them about this Doctrine It was the thing which they had heard from the beginning that this is the promise which he hath promised us even eternal life 1 John 2. 24 25. This was every Apostles sense this they all preached this every Christian believed It was the common Faith of Gods elect the common hope of their heavenly calling and in one word the common salvation Titus 1. 1 2 4. Ephes 4. 4. Jude 3. It was not the belief of St. Paul alone he was not the only man that published this glad tydings to the world But they all heard the voice of Christ they all beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father they all were witnesses of his resurrection and all felt the same miraculous change wrought in their souls and as our Lord prayed that they might be one as he and the Father were John 17. 9. so they unanimously delivered that which they received 1 Cor. 15. 3. 11. and preached this hope of the Gospel to every creature which is under heaven Col. 1. 23. teaching every man in all wisdom that they might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus Whereunto I also labour saith the same Apostle striveing according to his working which worketh in me mightily Ib. V. 28 29. This shews that they had no slight and superficial thoughts of the life to come but that they were exceeding serious in the belief of it being rooted and grounded in this truth Which will more fully appear if you go on to consider III. That they knew these things so clearly and were so abundantly satisfied in the certainty of them that they made them their scope and their aim to which they directed and at which they levelled all their desires and endeavours This the Particle FOR puts us in mind of which sends our thoughts back to the words before and gives us an account of that character which we there find of the Apostles of our Lord who looked * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not at the things which were seen but at the things which were not seen They were so perswaded of this happy state hereafter that it was alwayes in their eye and they made it the mark to which they bent all their thoughts