Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A61181
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A sermon preached before the King and Queen at Whitehal, on Good-Friday, 1690 by the Lord Bishop of Rochester, Dean of Westminster.
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Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing S5061; ESTC R13441
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13,597
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46
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for our Salvation but in the mean time and in order to that for our Example And lastly The Excellency of the Example he has left us to follow is specified in such an eminent Instance that He did no Sin as would indeed make us utterly to despair of ever following it were it not for his Grace strengthning us his Mercy forgiving us and his Spirit supporting us All which he has faithfully promis'd and no Guile was ever found in his Mouth The first Particular in my Text wherein the Grace of our LORD's Passion is magnifi'd is that the Person now suffering was the Christ of God I need not here stay to enumerate distinctly the many High Prerogatives and Glorious Appellations which are heap'd on this great Person as he was the Christ throughout the Holy Scriptures whereof He was the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the Ending first the Mystery then the Manifestation that to the Jewish Church under the Law this to the whole World under the Gospel It may suffice that all over this inspir'd Book He is amply declar'd to be what the Author to the Hebrews has Divinely contracted into few words The Son of God The only begotten of God The Heir of all Things The Lord of Glory The very Brightness of his Fathers Glory The express Image of his Person full of Grace and Truth by whom He made the Worlds upholding all Things by the Word of his Power All unconceivably splendid and triumphant Attributes and all these directly tending to and chiefly exercis'd in our Pardon and Peace For so it presently follows that when by himself he had purg'd our Sins then and not till then He sate down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High This then was the Christ appointed before all Time coming in the fulness of Time sent from the Bosom of his Heavenly Father by his Death to raise us from the Death of Sin whereof our first and Temporal Death was the fatal Consequence and our second Eternal Death had been else the irreparable Punishment A Design this was of Pity and Compassion whose Heigth Depth Length and Breadth were so Incomprehensible that nothing less could be sufficient than an Infinite Wisdom to contrive it and Power to effect it and Love to accept of it By this one Adorable Counsel Heaven and Earth that were themselves so vastly distant and whose distance our Sins had widened so much more were to be join'd and for ever Reconciled Mercy and Truth were to meet together Righteousness and Peace to kiss each other There was to be an Atonement on the one part a Forgiveness on the other Satisfaction was to be made by the Free Sufferings of a Man Salvation to be bestow'd by the Free Grace of GOD. Wherefore both Natures the Human and the Divine were to be United in one Christ. And since GOD was pleas'd to dignifie our Mortal Condition so highly by this near Conjunction he made our Nature in his Christ as Glorious and Perfect as it was capable to be The Preparations for his Appearance the Signs that foretold him the Wonders that made way for him his Personal Perfections his Teaching his Actions his Sufferings did all exceed all Measures of Human Greatness or Benignity So Sacred was his Authority that all other True Divine Teachers from the beginning of the World to his Birth though they had gone before him in the Flesh yet received their Power and Commission from him by the Spirit Whatever Wonders they wrought whatever Truths they taught all was done and spoken with relation to him and in subservience to his Religion We know that not only he himself but even his Types Forerunners and Shadows had many of them the Privilege of working Miracles the Gift of altering the common Course of Nature and controuling the setled Laws of the Creation as they pleas'd The Prophets had it Moses had it above all others Yet they all had it only with dependance on him and by a Title deriv'd from him as they were his Figures Ministers and Substitutes to prepare and enable the World by Degrees to receive this Great Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh This last and universal Declaration of Life and Immortality brought to Light in the Gospel by Him the Messias I know that Messias cometh who is called Christ and when he is come he will teach us all things said the Samaritan Woman in St. John the 4th and Vers. 25. And in the same Chapter said many of the Samaritans Now we have heard him our selves we know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the World Vers. 42. And the same St. John who loved him most and therefore probably knew him best for the greatest Love of GOD is the best way to the greatest Knowledge of him The Messias says he is being interpreted the Christ The very Messias whom the Jewish Nation all the Wise Devout and Inspired part of it all the time it was a True Church so earnestly expected and desired as he was to be afterwards also the Desire of all Nations They long before beheld him though but darkly in the Visions and Intimations to their Fathers the Characters and Inspirations of their Prophets the Veils of their Ceremonies and Sacrifices the Ornaments of their Temple the Office of their High Priests which were all as the Law it self was only Shadows of good things to come whereof He was the Body they had all a borrowed Meaning and Mystical End they were all fixt on the Great Messias by Him they were Illustrated and in Him alone they were all Consummated By the United Expectation of the Jews all along according to the Prophet Daniel's Prediction and no doubt by a right Tradition antienter than that their Messias was to appear after the Captivity and before the Destruction of their Temple and Nation They themselves just then when Christ came did instantly and every Moment expect his coming All their Circumstances agreed in that time All their Descriptions concenter'd in his Person All their Prophecies than gave over the End of them all being in him once obtain'd And that People has since had no more visible Communion with GOD which had so much before The Scepter was not to depart from Judah nor a Law-Giver from between his Feet till Shiloh should come The Scepter just then did depart from Judah Their Temple was shortly after destroy'd and their Nation irrecoverably hitherto scatter'd Wherefore this our Christ must Infallibly have been the same with their Shiloh their Messias He Unto whom the gather ing of the People was to be He towards whom all the Antient Ages of GOD's Church before him did look forward and upon whom all the Ages of it since have look'd back The former Times to foretel him the later Times to reveal him both to Believe in and to be Saved by him alone for which end and with respect to him all the Miseries
A SERMON PREACHED before the King and Queen At WHITEHAL On Good-Friday 1690. By the Lord Bishop of ROCHESTER Dean of WESTMINSTER Published by Their Majesties Command In the SAVOY Printed by Edward Jones M. DC XC 1 St. Peter Chap. 2. Part of 21st and 22d Verses Christ also suffer'd for us leaving us an Example that ye should follow his Steps Who did no Sin THE Subject of our Devout Meditations on this Blessed Day is our dear Redeemer's Passion and the last most bitter part of it his humbling himself so as to become Obedient to Death even the Death of the Cross and the Preaching of this Cross though as St. Paul tells us To them that Perish it is Foolishness yet he also assures us to as many as are Saved it is the Power of God Now that none of Us should be found in the number of those who Perish by foolishly despising the Doctrine of a Crucified Saviour but rather that we may all be wise to Salvation by meekly adoring this Power of God and the wondrous Depths of Divine Love in it and by rightly applying the unspeakable Fruits of it to our selves our Church has taken all imaginable care to represent it to us in the most serious and efficacious manner and to fix it firmly on our Minds and Consciences by frequent and affectionate Repetitions of all its Parts and Aggravations So that if we shall reflect on the whole Annual Circle of our Publick Devotions 't were easie to observe that our Saviour's Sufferings are therein oftner reiterated and more in proportion insisted on than perhaps any other Article of our pure and undefiled Religion Our Church in this as in all things else exactly following the Blessed Pattern of the first and purest Ages as they did the Gospel of Christ which seems to dispense and measure out to us the benefits of all Spiritual Truths even of his Glorious Resurrection it self only according as we shall lay hold on the Merits of and be conformable to his Death For so among many other Scriptures to the like purpose we read That if we have been planted together in the likeness of his Death if so and upon no other terms then we shall be also planted in the likeness of his Resurrection Wherefore in order to this and to introduce as at this time the Passion of Christ with the greater Solemnity well did the Church Ordain That the certain Period of our Regular Abstinence and Repentance every Year should immediately go before this particular Season wisely judging the severest Mortifications of our selves to be the best Preparations for our meeting worthily our Lord dying and rising again for us and that some more than ordinary Method of Zealous Piety and Stricter Retirement from the World was necessary to fit us duly for a Time and Commemoration so Sacred Nay farther yet When the very Day of his dying did nearer approach to shew what ought to be the chief Matter of our Private Contemplations as well as Publick Worship during the whole Week preceding which has been therefore remarkably honour'd with the Venerable Name of The Holy Week has not our Excellent Liturgy Day by Day without Intermission with a Succession of Divine Offices the like not enjoin'd us in any other Week of the Year continually repeated and inculcated on our Memories this one charming Truth That our Lord our Love was Crucified So that scarce any thing else has all this while sounded in our Ears in these Holy Places but some one or other step of our Saviour's sad and dolorous passage to the Field of Blood till now at length we are brought thither and to the very Day when He cried out It is finish'd and gave up the Ghost We having been so lately conducted through this wholesome course of Severities and Contritions all teaching us to Die to Sin as our Lord Died now for our Sins I cannot but believe that what had been else the proper Business of the Preacher on this Day is already in great part here done to my Hands that You are all come hither tenderly affected with a deep Sense and melting Remorse for what Christ suffer'd as at this time in our stead And if by GOD's Grace Your Hearts are thus already touch'd from above then all that is left for me to do will be only to assist You not so much in raising as in directing to the best Uses Your Devout Affections already rais'd To consult together with You in the Fear of GOD how all this Grief and Sorrow which so deservedly possesses Your Souls may become a true Christian Grief and Godly Sorrow How by Degrees we may advance it into Spiritual Gratitude Hope Love Zeal and Full Assurance of Faith and at last into Joys unspeakable and full of Glory Which as sure as God is true will come to pass in the event if we shall make his precious Death and Passion not only the steady Object of our Belief and Admiration in those parts of it wherein we cannot imitate Him but also of our unwearied Imitation and constant Practise in those Things wherein he left behind him an Example for us to follow his Steps So you see it is that my Text instructs us in the only saving way of Contemplating our dear Lord's Sufferings that we should consider them not only in themselves and their Cruel and Lamentable Circumstances but in their Gracious Ends Influences and Powers As Christ was the Person Suffering as he suffer'd so much and as he suffer'd for us For us as an unvaluable Randsom to atone GOD's Justice that we may relie on it For us as an unblameable Original of Meekness Holiness Charity and Resignation to the Will of GOD that we may Copy after it In these few Words therefore we behold our LORD's Passion display'd to our View in its brightest Glory its condescending Humility its most obliging Endearments and its principal Uses First Its Glory in that it was Christ who suffer'd Jesus the Christ the Christ of God who is Lord of all things the Lord and Giver of Life That the same Person who was Anointed a King to Govern the whole World and Ordain'd a Prophet to Teach 〈◊〉 should be also Consecrated a Priest to â—acrifice for it Himself being the Oblation That is the Second and was the Lowâ—ness of His Humility which is here styled His Suffering Expressing in one word His patient enduring all that Misery and Torment which not only the Malice oâ— wicked Men or the Rage of Hell disappointed by Him but the Wrath of GOD provoked could inflict on Him not in the least on His own Account but only for our sakes Which next follows and is the most endearing part of all that He suffer'd for us the Creator for the Creatures the Just for the Unjust the Judge for the Criminals Yet for us loaded with all this Weight of our Guilt and with all these just Causes of His Prejudice he suffered for our Justification