Selected quad for the lemma: law_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A62619
|
Sermons concerning the divinity and incarnation of our blessed Saviour preached in the Church of St. Lawrence Jewry by John, late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.
|
Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.
|
1695
(1695)
|
Wing T1255A; ESTC R35216
|
99,884
|
305
|
mean in His going about doing good That by giving Glory to God in the Highest and by endeavouring as much as in us lies to procure and promote Peace on Earth and Good Will amongst Men we may at last be made meet to be made partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Through the Mercies and Merits of our B. Saviour and Redeemer Amen Almighty God who hast given us thy only begotten Son to take our Nature upon Him and as at this Time to be born of a pure Virgin Grant that we being regenerate and made thy Children by Adoption and Grace may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit through the same our Lord Jesus Christ who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the same Spirit ever one God world without end Amen SERMON V. Concerning the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ c. HEB. IX 26. But now once hath he appeared in the end of the world to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself AMONG many other great ends and reasons for which God was pleased to send his Son into the World to dwell amongst us this was one of the chief that by a long course of the greatest innocency and the greatest sufferings in our Nature he might be capable to make a perfect Expiation of Sin But now once in the end of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the conclusion of the Ages that is in the last Age of the World which is the Gospel Age hath he appeared to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself The general design of God in sending his Son into the World was to save mankind from eternal death and misery and to purchase for us eternal life and happiness So the Author of our Salvation himself tells us That God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Now in order to the procuring of this Salvation for us the impediments and hindrances of it were to be removed these were the guilt and the dominion of Sin By the guilt of Sin we were become obnoxious to the wrath of God and to eternal condemnation and by the defilement and dominion of it we were incapable of the happiness of Heaven and the reward of eternal Life To remove these two great hindrances two things were necessary the Forgiveness of sins past in order to our deliverance from the wrath of God and the eternal torments of the next Life and the Reformation of our hearts and lives to make us capable of eternal Life and happiness in another World And both these if God had so pleased might for any thing we certainly know to the contrary have been effected by the abundant mercy and powerful grace of God without this wonderful method and dispensation of sending his Son in our Nature to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself But it seems the wisdom of God thought fit to pitch upon this way and method of our Salvation and no doubt for very good Reasons amongst which these three seem to be very obvious and very considerable First To vindicate the honour of his Laws which if Sin had gone altogether unpunish'd would have been in great danger of falling into contempt For if God had proclaimed a general Pardon of Sin to all mankind without any testimony of his wrath and displeasure against it who would have had any great veneration for his Laws or have believed in good earnest that the violation of them had been either so extremely offensive to Him or so very dangerous to the Sinner Therefore to maintain the honour of his Laws rather than Sin should pass unpunisn'd God would lay the punishment of it upon his only begotten Son the dearest Person to him in the World Which is a greater testimony of his high displeasure against Sin and of his tender regard and concernment for the honour of his Laws than if the Sinner had suffered the punishment due to it in his own person Secondly Another Reason of this Dispensation and that likewise very considerable was that God might forgive Sin in such a way as yet effectually to discountenance and discourage it and to create in us the greatest horror and hatred of it Which could not have been by an absolute Pardon without any punishment inflicted or satisfaction made to the honour of his Justice For had Sin been so easily forgiven who would have been sensible of the great evil of it or afraid to offend for the future But when God makes his own Son a Sacrifice and lays upon him the punishment due for the iniquities of us all this is a demonstration that God hates Sin as much if it be possible as he loved his own Son For this plainly shews what Sin deserves and what the Sinner may justly expect if after this severity of God against it he will venture to commit it And if this Sacrifice for Sin and the Pardon purchased by it be not effectual to reclaim us from Sin and to beget in us an eternal dread and detestation of it If we sin wilfully after so clear a revelation of the wrath of God from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation to consume the adversaries For what could God do more to testify his displeasure against sin and to discountenance the practice of it than to make his only Son an offering for Sin and to give him up to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities In what clearer Glass can we at once behold the great evil and demerit of Sin and the infinite goodness and mercy of God to Sinners than in the sorrows and sufferings of the Son of God for our Sins and for our sakes Thirdly Another Reason of this Dispensation seems to have been a gracious condescension and compliance of Almighty God with a certain apprehension and persuasion which had very early and universally obtained among Mankind concerning the expiation of Sin and appeasing the offended Deity by Sacrifices by the Sacrifices of living Creatures of Birds and Beasts and afterwards by Human Sacrifices and the blood of their sons and daughters by offering to God as the expression is in the Prophet their first-born for their transgression and the fruit of their body for the sin of their souls And this Notion of the expiation of Sin by Sacrifice whether it had its first Rise from Divine Revelation and was afterwards propagated from Age to Age by Tradition I say from whence soever this Notion came it hath of all other Notions concerning Religion excepting those of the Being of God and his Providence and of the Recompences of another Life found the most universal reception and the thing hath been the most generally practised in all Ages and Nations not only in the old but in the new discovered parts of the World And indeed
is fit for God to do and that he needs not to take counsel of any of his Creatures what will best become him in this or any other Case Behold in this thou art not just I will answer thee that God is greater than man Why dost thou dispute against him for he giveth not account of any of his matters Thirdly If our Reason could get over this Difficulty and admit that God might become Man yet it seems very unsuitable to the Son of God and to his great Design of instructing and reforming Mankind to appear in so low and suffering a condition This to the Heathen Philosophers who as the Apostle tells us by Wisdom knew not God did not only seem unreasonable but even ridiculous So St. Paul tells us We says he preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness To think that so poor and mean a Man was fit to give Laws to Mankind and to awe the minds of men by the Authority of his Doctrine That One who was put to Death himself should be believed by others when he promised to them Life and Immortality in another World could not but appear very strange and unreasonable For Answer to this besides other excellent Reasons and Ends which the Scripture expresly assigns of our B. Saviour's Humiliation in his assuming our Nature with the frailties and miseries of it As that he might be a Teacher and an Example to us That by his bitter Passion he might make Expiation for sin and â—et us a pattern of the greatest meekness and patience under the greatest provocations and sufferings That having suffered so grievously himself he might know how to commiserate and pity us in all our temptations and sufferings That by death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and might deliver those who through fear of Death were all their Life-time subject to bondage I say besides all this it was of great use that the great Teacher and Reformer of Mankind should live in so mean and afflicted a condition to confront the pride and vanity of the World by this consideration that the Son of God and the very best man that ever was was a Beggar and had not where to lay his head And likewise to convince Men of these two great Truths That God may grievously afflict those whom he dearly loves and That it is possible for men to be innocent and contented in the midst of poverty and reproach and sufferings Had our B. Saviour appeared in the Person and Pomp of a great temporal Prince the influence of his Authority and Example would probably have made more Hypocrites and servile Converts but not have persuaded men one jot more to be inwardly holy and good The great Arguments that must do that must not be fetch'd from the Pomp and Prosperity of this World but from the great and eternal Recompences of the other And it is very well worth our observation that nothing puzzled Cesar Vaninus who was perhaps the first and the only Martyr for Atheism that ever was I say nothing puzzled him more than that he could not from the History of our Saviour's Life and Actions written by the Evangelists with so native a simplicity fasten upon him any probable imputation of a secular interest and design in any thing that he said or did No doubt but Vaninus before he made this acknowledgment had searched very narrowly into this matter and could he have found any colour for such an imputation he would have thought it sufficient to have blasted both Him and his Religion You may be pleased to consider further that it was the opinion of the Wisest Jews that the best men the Children of God who called God their Father were many times exposed to the greatest sufferings and reproaches for the trial of their faith and meekness and patience as we may see at large in the Wisdom of Solomon where speaking of the malice and enmity of the wicked to one that was eminently righteous he brings them in saying after this manner Let us lie in wait for the righteous because he is not for our turn he is clean contrary to our doings He upbraideth us with our offending the Law and objecteth to our infamy the transgressions of our youth He professeth to have the knowledge of God and he calleth himself the Child of the Lord He is grievous unto us even to behold for his life is not like other mens his ways are of another fashion We are esteemed of him as counterfeits he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness He pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed and maketh his boast that God is his Father Let us see if his words be true and what shall happen in the end of him For if the just man be the Son of God he will help him and deliver him from the hands of his Enemies Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture that we may know his meekness and prove his patience Let us condemn him to a shameful Death c. This is so exact a Character of our B. Saviour both in respect of the holiness and innocency of his Life and of the reproaches and sufferings which he met with from the wicked and malicious Jews who persecuted him all his life and at last conspir'd his death that whoever reads this Passage can hardly forbear to think it a Prophetical Description of the innocency and sufferings of the B. Jesus For He certainly in the most eminent manner was the Son of God being called by the Evangelist the only begotten of the Father Or if this was not a Prediction concerning our B. Saviour yet thus much at least may be concluded from it that in the judgment of the Wisest among the Jews it was not unworthy of the Goodness and Wisdom of the Divine Providence to permit the best Man to be so ill treated by wicked men And further that in their judgment the innocency and vertues of an eminently righteous man are then set off to the best advantage and do shine forth with the greatest lustre when he is under the hardest circumstances of suffering and persecution from an evil World Add to this likewise that the best and wisest of the Heathen Philosophers do frequently inculcate such Doctrines as these That Worldly Greatness and Power are not to be admir'd but rather to be despis'd by a wise man That men may be very good and dear to the Gods and yet liable to the greatest miseries and sufferings in this World That whoever suffers unjustly and bears it patiently gives the greatest testimony to Goodness and does most effectually recommend Piety and Vertue as things of greater value than the ease and pleasure of this present Life Nay further that a good man cast into the hardest circumstances of poverty and misery of reproach and suffering is the fittest person of all other to be the Minister and Apostle and