Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A50683
|
A sermon preached before the King at White-hall July 30, 1676 by John Meriton ...
|
Meriton, John, b. ca. 1630.
|
1677
(1677)
|
Wing M1821; ESTC R744
|
12,431
|
32
|
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
delight in their Abominations c. And what-ever Veneration these righteous men in the Text had for themselves for tything Mint Annice and Cummin but neglecting the weightier things of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith for making clean the outside of the Cup and Platter remaining within full of Extortion and Excess making long Prayers to devour Widows Houses Our Saviour esteems no better of them than whited Sepulchres which appear beautiful to the eye but within are full of rottenness and dead men's bones let our care be then to be really what we appear not having a Form of Godliness denying the Power and let every man that names the Name of Christ depart from all Iniquity for bodily Exercise profits little but Godliness hath the Promise of this life and that that is to come This is that Law of Perfection which it is the design of all positive Laws to advance and propagate as the Promulgation of the Decalogue and the Institution of the Gospel which is so far from being a relaxation to Moral Duty as it is the greatest help and obligation to promote it upon a twofold account First As the most clear and manifest Revelation of Truth The Law came by Moses but Grace and Truth by Jesus Christ The Law was Truth in obscure Types and Shadows but the Gospel is Truth in its own Image and Likeness and the clearer and more manifestly any Law is promulged the greater and more forcible is its Obligation Acts 17. 35. The time of this ignorance God winked at but now he commands all men every where to repent Secondly As the most clear evidence of the truth and certainty of a future life after this the main Argument of the Gospel being the truth and certainty of the Resurrection of Christ from the dead in the truth and substance of Humane Nature and in the Circumstances of Life and Immortality to die no more 2 Tim. 1. 9. Who hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel The Summary Article of which is to confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus and believe in our hearts that God hath raised him from the dead Rom. 10. 10. God hath been pleased to give many instances of his Power in raising the Dead by his Prophets under the Law and by Christ and his Apostles under the Gospel which are strong Inferences of the possibility of a Resurrection but because all that were raised from the dead till Christ dyed again and he only lives to die no more His being so raised is the only assurance as the First Fruits of a full Harvest of a future Resurrection and Judgment when every man shall rise again with his own Body to receive according to what he hath done in the Flesh whether good or evil and the belief of this is the most if not only powerful Motive to Moral Goodness for if there be no Resurrection it is a Natural Inference Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die But if there be a Resurrection it is equally rational to infer herein let us exercise our selves continually to have always a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man The Jews were generally governed by the hope and fear of Reward and Punishment only in this life and generally looked for a Temporal Messiah to deliver them from the bondage of the Roman Tyranny and to give them great temporal Peace and Prosperity and because Christ came in the weakness and poverty of a Servant and they expected him in the pomp and power of a Sovereign they owned him not for their Messiah but to this day look for another the which their Errours and Mispritions were the Genuine Off spring of their ignorance and uncertainty of a Future State And the Sadducees a great and learned Party amongst them said there is no Resurrection neither Angel nor Spirit And though the Gentiles at least some of their wise men and Philosophers asserted and believed the Immortality of the Soul yet they were all uncertain if not altogether in unbelief of the Resurrection of the Body that these Mola's of flesh and blood should put on Incorruption and be cloathed with Immortality which is the only clear Revelation of the Gospel and the mâ—st powerful Argument to all the Duties and Obligations of Moral Righteousness c. The Jews went into Captivity under Shisack King of Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel and at last were desolate under Titus and Vespatian with the Temple of the Lord in their mouths and the sign of Circumcision in their flesh and Abraham to their Father And if God spared not the Natural Branches it is fair warning to the Wild Olives grafted in not to be high minded but fear not to trust to the outward Privileges of the due Administration of the Word and Sacraments or external obedience to Instituted Righteousness and positive Laws without cleansing themselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God for it is not that that goes in but that that comes out that defiles a man Good and Evil properly consists not in the external act and operation of the Body but in the inward habit and disposition of the mind whence it is that love is the fulfilling of the Law and consequently Hate the transgression of it so that he that loves his Neighbour as himself is his preserver and he that hates him in his heart is his murtherer though neither ever have power or opportunity actuallay either to save or to destroy Charity is not properly to rerelieve them that want but to love God above all and our Neighbour as our selves nor Martyrdome every dying but dying for the love of God and Truth 1 Cor. 13. 3. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing Joh. 4. 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Optimus animus pulcherrimus Dei cultus Seneca He worships God best who hath the best mind God bears respect to Abel and to his Offering That Holocaust and Oblation which smokes from the Altar of a dovoted heart to God for the Altar sanctifies the Gift bears our acceptable Odour otherwise we are but like Vaults that sound merely from their hollowness c. External Profession of the best Religion Outward Communion with the best Church such as the Jewish once was and the Christian now is cannot secure or privilege from the storms of Divine Vengeance without the true belief and necessry practice of Truth and Holiness c. And since we have the Profession of the best Religion and live in Communion with one of the best Churches this day in the world which happiness God grant us long to enjoy under the protection and in the long life and prosperity of our most religious and gracious Sovereign and may it ever be the Blessing to us and our Posterities for all Generations that therein we may effectually save our souls from death and hide the multitude of our sins may it please God so to assist us with his Grace as that in the firm belief of all her Principles in the uniform practice of all her Duties and Obligations we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all Godliness and Honesty that being holy and humble and undefiled the Children of God without rebuke we may at last together with all those that are departed this world in the true Faith and fear of God be made partakers of the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit three Persons and one God of the same Substance Power and Eternity be given of us all Angels all Men and all Creatures all possible Honour and Glory Praise and Dominion Power and Thanksgiving Fear Adoration and Obedience now and for ever Amen FINIS