Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A57159
|
A sermon preached before the King upon the twenty eighth of March, 1669 by Edward Lord Bishop of Norwich.
|
Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.
|
1669
(1669)
|
Wing R1284; ESTC R36786
|
19,736
|
44
|
A SERMON Preached before The King UPON The twenty eighth of March 1669. BY EDVVARD Lord Bishop OF NORWICH· Published by his Majesties Command LONDON Printed by Ia. Cotterel for Philemon Stephens at the Kings Arms in Chancery-lane 1669. A SERMON Preached before the King UPON The twenty eighth of March 1669. Philippians 3.8 Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord. OUr blessed Saviour compareth the Kingdom of Heaven to an hid Treasure and a pearl of great price which a wise Merchant having found sold all that he had to buy it This hidden treasure is our life which is hid with Christ in God this pearl of great price is that which the Apostle calls the unsearchable riches of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith St. Paul unto whom the Lord from heaven did reveal this treasure and pearl hath in this chapter discovered himself to be one of those wise Merchants who parted with all for this inestimable purchase He looked on himself before as a rich man in things pertaining unto God Great dignitie of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin an Hebrew of the Hebrews Great strictness of Religion a Pharisee separated from the ways of the world Great learning brought up at the feet of Gamaliel and taught according to the perfect manner of the Law of the fathers Great zeal and fervency even unto persecution Great sanctitie in his own opinion I was alive without the law once as touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless These things before he came to the knowledge of Christ he eesteemed very gainful advantagious and meritorious to salvation for he had profited in the Iews religion above many his equals But when it pleased God to reveal his Son unto him he consulted no more with flesh and bloud he set no more value on meer carnal priviledges or performances looked on them as loss and dung on all his own righteousness but as a menstruous cloath durst put no confidence in any thing of his own but in the alone Righteousness of Christ Jesus his Lord in the fellowship of his sufferings and in the power of his resurrection He would glory in nothing but the Cross of Christ he would relye on nothing but the Grace of Christ he would lose all that he might win Christ. I have chosen these words to open the excellencie of the Gospel of Christ and of the saving knowledge of him thereby in comparison whereof the Apostle esteemed all his other dignities priviledges righteousness performances upon which he had formerly built the hopes of his salvation to be all but loss and dung I begin with the former of these the excellency of Evangelical Doctrine called by the Apostle a glorious Gospel a ministration of righteousness which exceeds in glory a word of life a Gospel of salvation the riches of the world a treasure accompanied with the excellency of Divine Power a great mystery of godliness with other the like elogies setting forth those unsearchable riches of Christ therein as draw forth the wonder and adoration both of Men and Angels We shall consider the excellency of the Gospel 1. Comparatively 2. Absolutely For the former I shall not put the whole world nor all the Diadems Honours Pleasures and Revenues thereof into the balance with Christ he having assured us that it will little profit a man to win them all and to lose his soul for though a man could win the whole world yet within a few years he would lose it again but the soul being once lost is lost for ever never to be recovered But I. we shall compare the Gospel with the state of Innocency in Paradise It cannot be denyed but that there were divers things in that state of primitive integrity wherein Adam excelled any of his sinful off-spring He was made then wholly upright without any mixture of corruption or infirmity no evil of sin to defile him no evil of sorrow to disquiet him Whereas now the holiest men are commanded and constrained to cry out Forgive us our trepasses deliver us from evil He had no war between the flesh and spirit no inward combate between the law of the members and the law of the minde no temptation of lust to intice or draw him away from God Whereas the holiest men are now forced to complain O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death He did not in that state stand in need of a Mediator of reconciliation to restore him to the favour of God wherein he stood right and intire by the law of his creation He had no guilt to fill him with shame or fear or to drive him away from the presence of the Lord. Yet in some respect the grace of the Gospel is more excellent then the state of Adam in Paradise 1. Herein is the manifestation of more glorious mercy and wisdom For it was most consonant to the goodness of God to make reasonable creatures righteous at first but when they wilfully fell from their created integrity it was wonderful and free mercy to restore them again wonderful and glorious wisdom to do it by so great a condescension and contrivance as the Incarnation and Passion of theSon of God There lay no bond upon God at all to shew mercy to a creature which had cast him off and rebelled against him He might pari jure have left men unredeemed as he did the Angels and have glorified himself in their just perdition It was meer and alone mercy which made the difference He took not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham he took Heb. 2.16 2. By the Gospel the humane nature is more highly advanced then it could be in the first Adam had he persisted in his integrity First in the person of Christ in whom it was Hypostatically united to the divine Nature and advanced far above all principality and power might and dominion and every name that is named Angels and Principalities and Powers are made subject unto him He is the first-born of every creature and hath in all things the preeminence 2. In all those who are spiritually descended from him and estated by union and communion with him in his fulness both of Grace and Glory For certainly to be where Christ is and to behold his Glory when he shall come to be admired in those that believe to be like unto him to see him as he is to sit down with him on his Throne to be joynt Heirs with him in his Glory which are some of those exceeding great and precious promises which in the Gospel are made unto true Believers are more high and honourable expressions of the dignity of the Sons of God by gracious Adoption then
of the Law cancell'd and the Kingdom of sin destroyed and demolished in us To be Adopted unto the dignity of the Sons of God To be partakers of the Divine Nature To have the life and likeness of Christ formed in us these are branches and veins of those unsearchable riches of Christ which in the Gospel are set before us Lastly the preciousness of the Rewards which in the Gospel are promised unto Believers infinitely surpassing those which any other Religion maketh to the observers of it They dreamt onely of such delights as their narrow mindes darkned with sin and contracted unto baser objects could frame conceptions of to themselves But the rewards of the Gospel are of a more sublime and refined nature Such the endowments of the glorified body which the Apostle giveth us in four words 1 Cor. 15.42 44. 1. Incorruption nothing shall ever annoy or infest it as here poverty violence sickness death and other evils do 2. Honour siderial splendor and pulchritude like that of Christ in his transfiguration or of Moses coming down from the Mount· For if wisdom here make the face to shine Eccles. 8.1 as we read of St. Stephen That his face was as the face of an Angel Act. 6.15 How much more lustre will Celestial Glory bring upon it when it shall be as the Sun and as the brightness of the Firmament Dan. 12.3 3. Power and vigour to serve the glorified soul without any defect infirmity or impediment whatsoever 4. Spirituality no need of cloathing nutrition or any other Animal provisions it being perpetually supported and preserved by the Spirit of Glory· Such the endowments of the soul filled with the reward of blessedness A sure reward Prov. 11.18 grounded upon immutable love upon an unvaluable purchase upon unquestionable promises whereof we have in our selves the earnest in our head the possession A great reward a Crown an heavenly Kingdom a Kingdom of God a weight of Glory Psal. 19.11 Matt. 5.12 2 Cor. 4.17 A full reward 2 Joh. 5.8 no desire unanswered no faculty unreplenished no sin no sorrow no labour no tears unremoved Thou shalt make them drink of the River of thy pleasures Psal. 36.8 The minde filled with as much light the will with as much love the soul with as much peace as the whole capacity thereof is able to contain Faith hightned into vision hope satisfied in possession love compleated in fruition peace consummated in immutable inconcussible and indeficient delectation In these four things seem to consist the endowments of glorified souls so far as we can here frame any judgement of the glory to come 1. In a complete vision of God and Christ. Here we see but in part in the book of the creatures in the glass of the Word But then we shall see him as he is face to face we shall behold his face in righteousness though not with a comprehensive vision how can a finite comprehend an infinite Aliud est videre aliud totum videndo comprehendere saith saith St· Austin yet with a beatifical and replenishing Vision no desire of the minde unfilled unsatisfied with the knowledge of God and Christ. 2. In a complete possession of God and Christ. Here God is our God in a gracious Covenant in precious Promises in the first-fruits of the Spirit in the seeds of grace and peace in comfortable provisions in powerful providence in continual protection in spiritual Ordinances But all this while we are absent from the Lord in hope onely of things which we see not The Inheritance in our minority is reserved in heaven for us But at last we shall be admitted into it As our faith shall be changed into vision so our hope into a possession of God We shall not be in a waiting expecting longing languishing posture but in a plenary fruition of all the blessedness which the Covenant of Grace did by faith entitle us unto No faculty of the soul not as full of God as the Sun of Light or the Sea of Water 3. In a complete similitude and transformation into the Image of Christ. Here our Grace is mingled with corruption the flesh lusting against the Spirit As we are Similes per primitias spiritus so we are dissimiles per Reliquias vetustatis as St. Austin speaks But in Heaven we shall be wholly like unto him for we shall see him as he is As the Image of the Sun is formed in the glass on which it shines so the glorified soul by seeing God hath the untainted image of his Holiness and purity shed forth upon it 4. In a complete delectation arising from the vision possession and similitude unto God in whose presence is fulness of joy at whose Right-hand are pleasures for evermore Earthly delights are apt to cloy and produce a loathing But in Heaven the delights are full and perpetual Tota virtus Amare quod videas summa felicitas habere quod amas For it cannot be that the highest and chiefest good should ever cause a fastidium or satietie in the fruition of it since it comprehendeth eminently in it the particular and divided perfections of all other desirable things God himself being All in All unto us Unto All which we might add the excellency of the place where these glorious things are reserved for us where Christ hath prepared and furnished mansions for his own Spouse A building of God an house not made with hands wherein the Lord will shew that glory to his Church which no other creatures ever saw or can see Add hereunto the excellency of the company there Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs All Saints and Blessed Angels the glorious presence of the Lord Jesus the sight of whose Glory is the Glory of his Church Lastly the Crown of all is the eternity of this Glory· For the Mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting to those that fear him The Gospel of Christ an everlasting Gospel his Priesthood unchangeable his Kingdom inconcussible his sacrifice for ever his redemption eternal no moth no rust no seed of corruption within no thief no violence no cause of corruption without So long as there is power in God to preserve us so long as there is mercy and truth in God to reward us so long as God is our Father and Christ our Head so long shall believers be blessed and enjoy an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in the Heavens for us Oh that any who know themselves to be mortal here and immortal hereafter should rake in the dunghil of the earth for content and comfort and build their happiness upon loss and dung upon vanity and vexation who have such gloririous things as these to look after and to secure unto themselves Certainly no man liveth up to the dignity of man who doth not regulate his conversation by the pure and holy Laws of Christianity