Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A50683
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A sermon preached before the King at White-hall July 30, 1676 by John Meriton ...
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Meriton, John, b. ca. 1630.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing M1821; ESTC R744
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12,431
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32
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A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITE-HALL July 30. 1676. By John Meriton M. A. Chaplain to the Right Honourable HENRY Earl of Arlington Lord Chamberlain of His Majesty's Houshold Printed by His Majesty's special Command LONDON Printed for Simon Miller at the Star at the West-end of St. Paul's 1677. MATTH iii. 8 9. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance And think not to say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham THese words were spoken to the Pharisees and Sadduces who were the great Zealots of the Jewish Church especially the Pharisees whom Saint Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most strait Sect amongst the Jews Act. 26. 5. Which knew me from the beginning if they would testifie that after the most strait Sect of our Religion I lived a Pharisee These were zealous and punctual in the observation of the Law of Circumcision and all other Rites and Ceremonies instituted of God by Moses under which for a time were contained the Mysteries of true Religion and Godliness Heb. 9. 9 10. which was a figure for the time then present in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices for sin which could not make him that did that service perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Which stood in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal Ordinances imposed on them only until the time of Reformation In which Institutions consisted the external Profession and Form of true Religion and outward Communion with the visible Church until the coming of Christ in the Flesh but by a blind zeal for the Form without the Power of Godliness the Pharisees and Sadducees thought themselves privileged against the wrath menaced by the Baptist which contained a Prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and other great calamities then approaching to the Jews under Titus and Vespatian and also the terrour of eternal punishment in the damnation of Hell The multitude came and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins but these righteous in their own eyes had no sins to confess and came only to his Baptism out of a vain curiosity to see and censure deriding rather than believing that wrath they were warned to flee from reasoning as is evident from the Baptist's words in the Text We are zealous of the Law of Circumcision and all things enjoyned us of God by Moses and have Abraham to our Father Tush God cannot destroy us being righteous nor according to the Oath which he sware to Abraham and his Seed for ever but with Ixion in the Fable they embraced a Cloud instead of Juno whilst they thought they had found the clearest and the brightest truth it proved but a Cloud of palpable errour and darkness For the Baptist accuses their Righteousness of insufficiency admonishes them to repent and upbraids their vain oftentation and fruitless boasting of succession from Abraham from whose faith and vertue they were so far degenerated as they were more like a brood of Vipers than his Children They had proceeded all this while upon a false Hypothesis about that Righteousness wherein consisted the power and substance of true Religion and Godliness and upon which the Covenant of God in Christ was confirmed to Abraham four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the Law by Moses Gal. 3. 15 16. So that unless they would now upon means of better information recant their errours and recall their mistakes and reform their manners which is indeed to repent they could not secure themselves from being involved in the common Miseries then approaching their Land and Countrey under Titus and Vespatian or for ever escape the damnation of Hell For the Promise that he should be Heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith Rom. 4. 13. Religion is not a Complement but a real thing and that righteousness whereby we are righteous in the sight of God is not external obedience of the body to instituted Righteousness or positive Laws but internal obedience of the heart to the Law of Moral goodness and the Dictates of right Reason engraven upon the conscience of every man Rom. 2. 14. Explained and made more evident by the several Revelations of God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the Fathers by the Prophets and in these last days unto us by his Son Heb. 1. 1. The former which is our righteousness in the sight of men and but the shadow and carcase of Religion is called a righteousness of our own which is according to the Law Phil. 3. 9. As being the performance of the letter of the Law by the act and operation of the body through mere natural vertue which is our own But the latter which is our righteousness in the sight of God is called in the same Text The righteousness which is of God by faith in Jesus Christ Of which words I think my self obliged to give a distinct and full account and that according to the demonstration of truth to my own Conscience in the sight of God they being the directions of our present life to a future happiness which makes an errour dangerous and truth to be valued in opening them then I must give solution to these three Particulars 1. In what sence called the righteousness of Faith 2. Of God 3. Of God by faith in Jesus Christ 1. It is called the righteousness of Faith in a double respect 1. As being the most proper object of our Belief so to conceive of God as is most agreeable to natural notice and supernatural Revelation 2. As being the only Principle to the practice of all the Duties and Obligations of the Will of God so revealed Faith being the first Principle of all Religion both natural and revealed Heb 11. 6. He that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him 2. It is called the righteousness of God 1. As being the Copy or Image of that righteousness which God is in himself of which God himself is the Original and Perfection 2. As being that righteousness which God only approves and will reward Rom. 2. 28. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly nor is Circumcision that which is outward in the flesh but that which is inward in the heart whose praise is not of Men but of God 3. It is called the Righteousness of God by Faith in Jesus Christ 1. As to the performance of which we are assisted by the grace of God obtained by faith in Jesus Christ in whose Name whatsoever we ask believing we shall receive and the grace of the new Covenant consists in these three things 1. To encline our wills to accept the conditions 2. Upon our acceptance to assist our weakness 3. To accept our sincerity through many defects and imperfections the integrity of
our Wills will so far commute for the deed that is for the perfection of obedience to that Law of Moral Righteousness in a State of Grace as whatever pollutions or defilements we may have contracted through the fraud of the Devil the frailty of the Flesh or temptations of the World So long as our Converse with bodily Objects have not altogether sunk down our souls into a vicious love of them which is the dregs and feculency of sin and folly God will accept us upon a sincere repentance through the Merit and Righteousness of the Holy Jesus the redundancy of whose righteousness is to supply the defects of a sincere repentance 2. As being that righteousnes in the pursuance of which in truth though we cannot in perfection we can only have confidence of acceptance with God through Jesus Christ though we cannot be golden Scepters we must be broken Reeds though not burning and shining Lights we must be smoaking Flaxes in his sight who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax until judgment be brought forth unto victory And this is that righteousness of Faith wherein consists the power and substance of true Religion and Godliness upon which as the condition the Covenant of our reconciliation and happiness was confirmed of God in Christ to Abraham for all Generations who received the sign of Circumcision but as the Seal of the righteousness of Faith which is the condition of the Covenant which he had yet being uncircumcised that he might be the Father of all that believe that righteousness might be imputed to them also though they were not circumcised Rom. 4. 11. So that God was in no need of Abraham's Children according to the flesh but could without breach of Promise to him upon their Apostacy and Degeneracy from his faith and righteousness destroy them all and out of the obdurate Gentile world or the very stones raise up a People to himself followers of the faith of Abraham to whom as such the Promise in Christ did as truly belong as to the proudest Pharisee or Sadducee of them all Circumcision was but the sign of the Covenant not obedience to it but the profession of Religion not the practice of it and for them only to profess and expect the reward was as preposterous as if a Servant should demand wages of his Master for wearing of his Livery and neglecting of his Work The faith and righteousness of Abraham was example for their vertue not expiation of their sin and they might as reasonably have expected to have lived naturally by vertue of what Abraham had eat and drank without eating and drinking for themselves as to live eternally by vertue of that particular act of believing whereby Abraham wrought the works of God which was counted to him for righteousness unless by the same Spirit of Faith they should work the works of Abraham and of God and thereby work out their own Salvation with fear and trembling for Abraham's righteousness determined in himself he could thereby but deliver his own soul for God respects no man for the goodness of another but every man in the circumstance of his own integrity If the Stones the obdurate Gentiles the Wild Olives grafted in will believe and repent and do the works of Abraham upon the hearing of the Gospel they shall be the Children of Abraham and Heirs according to the Promise and if the Jews the Natural Branches continue in their Hardness and Unbelief it shall be no privilege to them that they are the Off-spring of Abraham according to the flesh Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance And think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham The Words thus opened principally imply two Particulars by way of Motive to Repentance 1. The Universality of the purpose of the Grace of God in the Redemption of the world by Jesus Christ the most proper Motive to Repentance against Despair 2. The Impartiality of God's Justice in distributing Rewards and Punishments without respect of persons And think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father the most proper Motive to Repentance against carnal security and presumption God is impartially good that none may despair and impartially just that none may presume 1. God is impartially good Though the Jews were Israelites to whom appertained the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenant and the giving of the Law and the Promises whose were the Fathers and of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came who is God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 4. And to whom were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. God had not therefore cast off all care or concern for other Nations though he had left them for some time to walk in their own ways without the direction of instituted Righteousness or positive Laws yet he did not leave himself without Witness in that he did them good and gave them rain from heaven and fruitful Seasons filling their hearts with food and gladness Acts 14. 17. And though the coming of Christ in the flesh that he might reconcile both Jew and Gentile unto God in one Body by the Cross Ephes 2. 16. And that the Gentiles should be Fellow-Heirs with the Jews of the same Body and partakers together of the Promises of Christ by the Gospel was a Notion that had been for some time buried in the dark vault of Nature's Ruines and long obscured under the thick veil of Moses's Law and by the dark sayings of the Prophets concerning Christ so as St. Paul in his Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians Ephes 3. 4 5. Coloss 1. 26. calls it a Mystery which hath been hid from Ages and Generations And St. Peter the Minister of the Circumcision and great Apostle of the Jews was first warranted by a Vision from Heaven Acts 10. 28. before he would acknowledge any Grace of God to the Gentiles yet what was formerly drawn by a dark Coal or Pencil is now written with a Sun-beam and there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek Rom. 10. 12. God can be merciful without being partial just without being cruel and truly great without designing irrespectively the far greatest part of Mankind for the Trophies of his Power in an eternal misery For as it follows in the same Text the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him God is equally related unto Mankind as the same Lord he is the God of the spirits of all flesh Heb. 12. 9. And hath made of one Blood all Nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitations Acts 17. 26. His Hands fashioned Esau as well as Jacob and consequently obliges his love and care in truth though not in degree for both so that those words Rom. 9. 13. Jacob have I loved