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A61272 The Christian's inheritance a sermon at the funeral of the Reverend Gabriel Towerson ... : preach'd at Welwyn, Octob. 21, 1697 / by George Stanhope ... Stanhope, George, 1660-1728. 1698 (1698) Wing S5222; ESTC R21949 16,995 33

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The Christian's Inheritance A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL Of the Reverend GABRIEL TOWERSON DD. Late Rector of St. Andrew Undershaft and of Welwyn in Hertford-shire Preach'd at Welwyn Octob. 21. 1697. By GEORGE STANHOPE D.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed for Matt. Gillyflower in Westminster-Hall H. Bonwick at the Red-Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard R. Sare at Gray's Inn-Gate in Holborn and Matt. Wotton at the Three Daggers in Fleet-street 1698. ROM viii 17. If Children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joynt-heirs with Christ BEhold what manner of Love the Father hath bestow'd upon us that we should be call'd the Sons of God! says St. John 1 Ep. III. 1. but as if even that Love wonderful as it is were yet too little behold another and greater Privilege asserted to us by St. Paul For whereas among Men tho' Parents may extend their Affection to all their Off-spring equally yet Custom and Convenience give Advantage to some Children above others in Point of Interest and Fortune Our Heavenly Father's Bounty is as diffusive as his Family and the Prerogative of this Spiritual Race set much above that of Common Sons For it is the unparallell'd Privilege of Christians to be like so many First-born We are not only admitted to the Title of Children but are joyn'd with God's Only-begotten in his Royalties and Possessions too and have a Right of Inheritance convey'd to every one of us Insomuch that the Apostle here makes This to be a necessary Consequence of the former The Spirit it self says he beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God Ver. 16. from whence he infers in the Words of my Text And if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and Joynt-heirs with Christ My Intention from these Words at present is I. First To give some Reasons why the Title of Good Men to the Happiness and Rewards of the next World shou'd be represented to us under the Notion of an Inheritance II. Secondly To shew what Influence this Consideration ought and may reasonably be expected to have upon us and then III. Lastly To apply my self from the foregoing Particulars to the Occasion of our assembling here together at this time Of These as fully and yet as briefly too as the Dignity of the Subject and the Shortness of my Warning will permit I. First I will lay before you some Reasons why among other Representations of our Happiness and Rewards in the next World This in particular of an Inheritance should be made choice of for the Comfort and Encouragement of Good Men And They among others which perhaps might properly enough be insisted upon seem to be more especially these Four that follow First This might be done out of a gracious Design to confirm our Hope and establish even an assur'd Expectation of our future Happiness We are told elsewhere in this Epistle that * Ch. VI. 23. Eternal Life is the Gift of God And so it most eertainly is and we are bound to believe and thankfully to receive it as such But in the mean while had This been propounded only as a Gift that Term could never be a just Foundation for so firm and great a Degree of Confidence as frail and wretched Mortals stand in need of to carry them through all the Hardships and Temptations of a dangerous and troublesome World For a Gift naturally implies something so free and arbitrary in the Giver as that it shou'd depend entirely upon his own mere Motion and Grace whether it ever be bestow'd or not But now by terming it an Inheritance we are referred to the Method of Father's setling Estates upon their Sons for a true Understanding of Our Case We can make out our Title and produce the Deeds of Conveyance even the sure the glorious Promises of Him who cannot lye and whose Gifts are without repentance The Antients we know never adopted any but with a design of conferring all the Advantages of Natural-born Children upon them and for that reason they took this Remedy as a Supply for issue of their own Our Heavenly Father hath adopted Us with the same kind Intentions though he cou'd not be driven to it by the same Necessity And in thus doing he hath wonderfully interwoven His Bounty and Our Right To that Bounty alone it is that we owe our having any Title at all to everlasting Blessedness But since he hath thought fit to admit us into the quality of Children we are thenceforth allow'd to put in our Claim And provided we be guilty of no Offence which may evacuate this Right and provoke him to cut off the Entail he is so far from condemning our Claim of Arrogance and Presumption that he requires us to depend upon him for the making it good and commends our Faith and filial Trust when we do so Secondly As this manner of Expression might be intended to beget in Good Men a more stedfast Expectation of their future Happiness so might it likewise be chosen to check all unreasonable opinion of their own Performances When the the Scriptures in some other Passages declare That Happiness to be the Reward of Men's Obedience Partiality and the dear Love of our Selves are apt to step in and blow us up with lofty Imaginations of I know not what mighty Desert in us How apt Humane Nature is to indulge these Swellings of the Mind and to persuade it self that even the Word of God hath countenanc'd such Vanity we need not go far to learn The wicked and but too successful Pains will teach us which have been taken in some other Communions * Si quis dixerit Hominis justificati bona opera ita esse dona Dei ut non sint etiam bona ipsius justificati merita aut ipsum justificatum bonis operibus non verè mereri augmentum gratiae vitam aeternam ipsius vitae aeternae-consecutionem atque etiam gloriae augmentum anathema sit Conc. Trident. Sess VI. Can. XXXII to bring Men off from the too mean and mortifying thoughts of their own Unworthiness and to exalt them with a Belief that they are able even to Merit at the Hands of their Great Master and Maker Thus far is true indeed That God requires Sincerity and Good-works and hath appointed These as the Condition of our Happiness But alas there is a very wide difference between bestowing that Happiness for the sake and strictly upon the account of our Services and declaring that he will not bestow it without them And if we rightly consider the Matter it will be found I think that the Promising Heaven under the Notion of an Inheritance does effectually overthrow all such insolent Pretensions God hath not hereby engaged to admit the Disobedient and Refractory 'T is true Stubbornness or Apostacy may alter the Case still and blast our most promising Hopes but it will not follow from thence that those hopes of Inheriting have our own Works even as done in obedience to and by the Grace of