Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A30449
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A sermon preached before the King at Whitehall, on Christmas-Day, 1696 by the Right Reverend Father in God, Gilbert Lord Bishop of Sarum.
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Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing B5905; ESTC R21549
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13,405
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35
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Son of God The Jews understood these two designations to be so inseparable that they had no other Controversy at first with the Apostles and the first Converts but about this Whether Jesus was the Messias or not But supposing him to be the Messias they never questioned his being the Son of God nor did they object to the Christians their giving him Divine Adoration We have the Martyrdom of St. Stephen the most punctually related of any of all the Passages that happen'd in the first beginnings of Christianity The Jews heard and saw all that past St. Stephen died calling upon the Lord Iesus to receive his spirit and praying to him not to lay that sin to the charge of his Murtherers If the Jews had not then believed that the Messiah was to be truly God and that as such he was to be invocated they must after this have reproached the Christians with Idolatry with making a Man God and with the worshipping him as such This they did not do which shews that then they owned that the Messiah was to be truly God This was yet more instructing to the Christians who could not but observe that St. Stephen ended his life in Acts of Invocation of Christ to the same effect with those in which Christ himself had called on his Heavenly Father when he gave up the Ghost Into thy hands I commit my spirit being of the same importance with that of St. Stephen's Lord Iesus receive my spirit As Father forgive them they know not what they do being the same Act in effect with this Lord lay not this to their charge If Christ was not truly God and to be worshipp'd as such it is not possible to excuse this from a very high degree of Idolatry I love not in such an Audience to dwell long on Points of Speculation Yet since this is the Capital Article of the Christian Religion and since it is one of the great Infelicities of the Age we live in that as many have been carried to question the Truth of the whole of it so not a few have with a particular Eagerness attack'd this Fundamental Point of it I hope the Day as well as the Time we are in will justify the insisting a little more upon it It is certain that if we confess that the New Testament was a Book writ by Divine Inspiration which those who deny this Doctrine profess they do acknowledge we must also confess that Divine Honours are through the whole of it ascribed to Jesus Christ From this Common sense seems to infer That either he was truly God by such a Real Union with the Eternal Word who is God as makes both Natures one Person in him the nearest resemblance to which is the Union of our Souls and Bodies out of which very different Natures arises one Man or one Person Or if this is not true it will follow That the Christian Religion one of whose main Ends was to banish Idolatry out of the world did really only change the Object of this Idolatry and draw men from worshipping the Deities of the several Nations to worship one who according to those mens Doctrine was only a Creature and yet was to be worshipp'd with the same Honour which is due to the Eternal God which were indeed a Strain in Idolatry beyond that of most Heathen Nations But to make this Matter yet plainer All the Sects among Christians that have rejected our Saviour's Divinity who yet acknowledge that Divine Honour is due to him may be reduced to these Two Either such as hold him to have been some Excellent Created Being made before the world and imployed by God in Making and Governing the world and so Dignified with Divine Honour These were the Arians of Old who under many high words seem to have meant no more but to acknowledge that he was some Created Mind such as the Jews and we all apprehend Angels to be Superior indeed in rank and order to any other of them but no Idea can be formed of a Created Mind how perfect soever but what is of the nature of Angels Now St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews begins it with the rejecting this conceit and he pursues that in the Two First Chapters in expressions that considering the Simplicity of Stile in which the New Testament is writ are as full as can be imagined They are of the nature of Negative words which are always to be severely understood They are likewise set in the terms of opposition and so must be strictly expounded The bare repeating them will make this yet more more sensible It is said of Christ That he was the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person Being made so much better than the Angels as he hath by Inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they Whatsoever Dignity they have it is a free donation whereas Christ has his by Inheritance To which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee But when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him an opposition as express as it is full These words are in the Book of Psalms but they are also in the Conclusion of the last Song of Moses according to the Septuagint Translation tho' not in the Hebrew Rejoyce O ye Heavens and let all the Angels of God Worship him This being then the Translation that was in use among the Jews when St. Paul writ it is most probable that he had regard to it there being no part of the Law that the Jews think is more full of Mystery and Prophecy than that Song The Angels being thus called on to Worship the Messias is a very strict Expression of another nature in him Superior to theirs and to which they are subject That is farther prosecuted Of Angels this is said He makes his Angels Spirits that is Winds which imports the quickness of their Motion and his Ministers a flaming fire a Figure importing their subtil force In opposition to which this follows But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever And Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the works of thiue hands they shall be changed but thou art the same and thy years shall not fail The Creation of the Heavens and the Earth and Eternity being in these words plainly affirmed of the Messias which could not be said without Blasphemy if he was not truly God This is carried yet further To which of the Angels said he at any time Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool in opposition to which it is said further of Angels Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation This is more expresly prosecuted in the next Chapter where this is made