Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A68833
|
A briefe declaration of the universalitie of the Church of Christ, and the unitie of the Catholike faith professed therein delivered in a sermon before His Maiestie the 20th. of Iune 1624. at Wansted. By Iames Ussher, Bishop of Meath.
|
Ussher, James, 1581-1656.
|
1629
(1629)
|
STC 24547; ESTC S118942
|
28,513
|
46
|
A BRIEFE DECLARATION OF THE VNIVERSALITIE OF THE CHVRCH of CHRIST and the Vnitie of the Catholike Faith professed therein DELIVERED IN A SERMON before His Maiestie the 20 th of Iune 1624. at WANSTED By IAMES VSSHER Bishop of Meath The third Impression LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Ephraim Dawson and are to be sold at the Rain-bow neere the Inner Temple Gate in Fleet-street 1629. EPHES. 4.13 Till we all come in the unitie of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ. WHen the Lords Arke was to set forward the forme of prayer used by Moses was Rise up LORD and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee The sweet Psalmist of Israel framing his descant to this ground beginneth the Psalm which he prepared to be sung at the removing of the Arke after the same manner Let God arise let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him flee before him and then goeth on till at length he hath raysed his note unto his full height Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led captivitie captive thou hast received gifts for men Psalm 68.18 Which being by our Apostle in this Chapter interpreted of the Ascension of our Saviour Christ into heauen and made the very spring from whence the matter of my present Text is derived leadeth us to the just application of the type to the truth and putteth us in minde that the removing of the Arke which gave occasion to the penning of his Psalme was an adumbration of our Saviours removeall from the Earth to Heaven and that by this absence of his we are no losers but gainers seeing he is ascended 〈◊〉 on high both to triumph over his and our foes he led captivitie captiue and to conferre benefits upon his friends he gave gifts unto men The Arke of the Covenant we know was appointed to be a figure of Iesus the Mediatour of the new Covenant the great King Prophet and Priest of his Church Therefore was it ordered that the Arke should haue a crowne of gold about it Exod. 37.2 than which what could be more fit to set forth the state of our King for thus wee see Iesus crowned with glory and honour Heb. 2.9 Vpon the Ark stood the Propitiatorie or Mercie-seate whence God did use to deliver his Oracles from betwixt the Cherubins than w ch what more lively representation could there be of the Propheticall office of our Saviour of whom it is written God hath in these last dayes spoken unto us by his Sonne Heb. 1.2 The Arke had both the Rod and the Tables of the Law by Gods appointment placed within it than which what could be more apt to expresse the satisfaction which our high Priest was to make unto his Fathers justice as well by his Passive as by his Active obedience for as he felt the stroke of the Rod for us that the chastisement of our peace being laid upon him with his stripes we might be healed so it behooved him also to fulfill the Law and all righteousnesse that so he might be the end of the Law for righteousnesse to every one that beleeveth The letter of the Law being not more certainely to be found within the Arke than the accomplishment thereof within him according to that which he spake by his holy Prophet In the volume of the booke it is written of mee that I should doe thy will O God yea thy Law is within my heart The Arke had many removes from place to place whiles it sojourned in the Tabernacle but was brought up at last into the Temple there to dwell upon God's holy Hill the place of which he himselfe had said This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have a delight therein Where at the first entry King Salomon stood ready to entertaine him with this welcome Arise O Lord God into thy resting place thou and the Arke of thy strength Let thy Priests O Lord God be clothed with salvation and let thy Saints reioyce in goodnesse Our blessed Saviour in the dayes of his flesh had no resting place but continually went about doing good untill at length he was received up into Heaven and sate on the right hand of GOD. For when he had ended his progresse upon Earth and finished there that worke which his Father had given him to doe he left the world and went to the Father making his last remove unto the high Court of Heaven where he is to reside untill the time of the restitution of all things The Temple of GOD was opened in Heaven and there was seene in his Temple the Arke of his Testament saith S. Iohn in the Apocalypse If we looke to the corporall presence of our Saviour in the Temple of Heaven must this Arke be sought for in no oother place is it to be found but if we looke to the vertue comming from him by the operation of his Word and Spirit so we shall finde him in his Temple upon earth present with us alwayes even unto the end of the world for these were the gifts that when he ascended into Heaven he did bestow upon men This the Prophet layeth downe thus Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast received gifts for men The Apostle citeth it thus When he ascended up on high he gave gifts unto men The reconciliation is easie He received those gifts not to retaine them with himselfe but to distribute them for the behoofe of his Church So for the Spirit S. Peter teacheth us Acts 2.33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted there is his ascending up on high and having received of the Father the promise of the holy Ghost there is his receiving he hath shed forth this which ye now see and heare there is his giving of this gift unto men And for the Ministery of the Word he himselfe intimateth as much in his Commission given to the Apostles Mat. 28.18.19 All power is given unto mee in heaven and in earth there he receiveth Goe ye therefore and teach all nations there he giveth this gift unto men He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints saith our Apostle here That herein also that might be fulfilled which we heard to haue beene uttered when the Arke was brought to his resting place Let thy Priests O Lord God be cloathed with salvation and let thy Saints reioyce in goodnesse The worke of the Ministery how meanely soever it be esteemed in the World yet in the estimation of our Saviour Christ was one of the choysest gifts that in this solemnitie of his triumphant ascending up far above all heavens he thought fit to bestow upon his Church here upon earth as
point of learning in the Schooles Yet Christ did give as well his Apostles and Prophets and Evangelists as his ordinarie Pastors and Teachers to bring us all both learned and unlearned unto the unitie of this faith and knowledge and the neglecting of this is the frustrating of the whole worke of the Ministerie For let us preach never so many Sermons unto the people our labour is but lost as long as the foundation is unlaid and the first principles untaught upon which all other doctrine must be builded Hee therefore that will studie to shew himselfe approved unto God a workeman that needeth not to be ashamed dividing the word of God aright must have a speciall care to plant this Kingdome both in the mindes and in the hearts of them that heare him I say in the hearts aswell as in the mindes because we may not content our selves with a bare Theoricall knowledge which is an information onely of the Vnderstanding and goeth no further than the braine but we must labour to attaine unto a further degree both of Experimentall and of Practicall Knowledge in the things that wee have learned A young man may talke much of the troubles of the world and a Scholar in the Vniversitie may shew a great deale of wit in making a large declamation upon that argument but when the same men have afterwards been beaten in the world they will confesse that they spake before they knew not what and count their former apprehension of these things to be but meere Ignorance in respect of that new learning which now they have bought by deare experience The tree in Paradise of which our first parents were forbidden to eate was called the tree of knowledge of good and evill because it signified unto them that as now while they stood upon termes of obedience with their Creator they knew nothing but good so at what time soever they did transgresse his commandement they should begin to know evill also whereof before they had no knowledge not but that they had an intellectuall knowledge of it before for he that knoweth good cannot be ignorant of that which is contrarie unto it Rectum being alwayes index sui obliqui but that till then they never had felt any evill they never had any experimentall knowledge of it So our Apostle in this Epistle boweth his knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ that hee would grant unto these Ephesians to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge shewing that there is a further degree of knowledge in this kinde that may be felt by the heart though not comprehended by the braine and in the Epistle to the Philippians he counteth all things but losse for the excellent knowledge sake of Christ Iesus his Lord. Meaning hereby a knowledge grounded upon deepe experience of the vertue of Christs death and resurrection in his owne soule as he expoundeth it himselfe in the words following That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and be made conformable unto his death There is an Experimentall knowledge then to be looked after beside the Mentall and so is there a Practicall knowledge likewise as well as an Intellectuall When Christ is said to have knowne no sinne wee cannot understand this of Intellectuall knowledge for had he not thus knowne sinne he could not have reproved it as he did but of Practicall So that Hee knew no sinne in S. Paul must be conceived to be the very same with He did no sinne in S. Peter In the first to the Romanes they that knew God because they glorified him not as God are therefore said not to have God in their knowledge God made his wayes and his lawes knowne to the children of Israel in the desert and yet he said of them It is a people that doe erre in their heart and they have not knowne my wayes For there is an errour in the heart as well as in the braine and a kinde of ignorance arising from the will as well as from the minde And therefore in the Epistle to the Hebrewes all sinnes are termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignorances and sinners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignorant and erring persons because how ever in the generall the understanding may be informed rightly yet when particular actions come to be resolved upon mens perverse wils and inordinate affections cloude their mindes and lead them out of the way That therefore is to bee accounted sound Knowledge which sinketh from the braine into the heart and from thence breaketh forth into action setting head heart hand and all aworke and so much onely must thou reckon thy selfe to know in Christianitie as thou art able to make use of in practise For as Saint Iames saith of faith Shew me thy faith by thy workes so doth he in like manner of knowledge Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge amongst you let him shew out of a good conversation his workes with meekenesse of wisedome and S. Iohn much to the same purpose Hereby we doe know that we know him if wee keepe his commandements He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him He speaketh there of Iesus Christ the righteous the Sonne of God who is here in my text likewise made the Obiect of this Knowledge Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God is by Christ himselfe made the rocke upon which the whole Church is builded And Other foundation saith S. Paul can no man lay than that is laid which is Iesus Christ. Not that wee should thinke that there were no other fundamentall doctrine to bee acknowledged but this alone for the articles of the Holy Ghost forgivenesse of sinnes resurrection of the dead eternall judgement and such like other have their place also in the foundation but because this is the most speciall object of faith and the primarie foundation of all the other For first as God is made the coaequate object of the whole bodie of Divinitie notwithstanding it treateth also of men and Angels Heaven and Hell Sinne and Obedience and sundrie other particulars because all these are brought to God reductiuely if not as explications of his Nature yet of his Workes and Kingdome so likewise may Christ be made the primarie head of all other fundamentall articles because they have all reference unto him being such as concerne eyther his Father or his Spirit or his Incarnation or his Office of Mediation or his Church or the speciall Benefits which he hath purchased for it Secondly howsoever this faith and knowledge being taken in their larger extent have for their full object what-ever is revealed in the Word of God yet as they build us upon the foundation as they incorporate us into the mysticall body as they are the meanes of our justification