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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A59816 A discourse concerning the knowledge of Jesus Christ and our union and communion with him &c. by William Sherlock ... Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. 1674 (1674) Wing S3288; ESTC R33886 180,039 448

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of the Gospel if they understand any thing more by them than expecting to be saved according to the terms of the Gospel Covenant that is by believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ And certainly they must mean something more than this or else they raise a great noise and clamour in the World and confound mens minds with obscure and unscriptural phrases to no purpose as will appear more in what follows CHAP. III. Of the Knowledge of Christ. SECT I. THE happiness of Mankind consists in the Knowledge and Love of God who is the greatest and the best Being and therefore our good God who is never wanting to his own glory and the happiness of his Creatures hath taken care in all Ages by one means or other to make known himself and his will to the World In the first Creation of all things he left such visible impresses of his own Divine Wisdom and Power on the works of Nature and planted in the mind of man such a natural knowledge of himself that it was as easie to discover the first Author of all things as it is now for a well disposed eye to see the Sun when it shines And while man preserved his innocence God himself did not disdain to converse with him and to give him very present and sensible demonstrations of his Power and Providence In after Ages as Mankind grew more corrupt and declined to Idolatry God afforded good men the frequent apparitions of Angels who were the great Ministers of his Providence and to instruct the more degenerate part of Mankind he raised up some great examples and Preachers of Righteousness such as Enoch and Noah and Abraham and gave such plain and undeniable proofs of his acceptance of these men as might reasonably incourage others to imitate their examples He translated Enoch immediately to Heaven and preserved Noah and his Family in the Ark when he destroyed the rest of the World by a deluge of Waters which was a signal warning to that corrupt Generation while the Ark was preparing and a great example to Posterity he sent Lot out of the ruins of Sodom and made Abraham the Father of a great Nation which was a convincing argument how dear these good men were to God and what others might expect from him who would worship and fear him as they did But when the World would not be reformed by these single Examples God chose the Posterity of Abraham to be a publick and constant demonstration of his Power and Providence and care of good men For when God chose the Posterity of Abraham to be his peculiar people he did not design to exclude the rest of the World from his care and providence and all possible means of Salvation as the Apostle argues in Rom. 3. 29. Is he the God of the Iews only Is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also which argument if it have any force in it must prove Gods respect to the Gentiles before the preaching of the Gospel as well as since because it is founded on that natural relation God owns to all Mankind as their merciful Creator and Governour which gives the Gentiles as well as Jews an intrest in his care and providence This plainly evinces that all those particular favours which God bestowed on Israel were not owing to any partial fondness and respect to that people but the design of all was to encourage the whole World to worship the God of Israel who gave so many demonstrations of his power and providence For this reason God brought Israel out of Aegypt with great signs and wonders and a mighty hand when he could have done it with less noise and observation that he might the more gloriously triumph over the numerous Gods of Aegypt and all their enchantments and divinations and that he might be honoured on Pharoah and all his Host. For this reason he maintained them in the Wilderness at the constant expence of miracles fought all their Battles for them and many times by weak and contemptible means overthrew great and puissant Armies drove out the Inhabitants of Canaan and gave them possession of that good land I say one great and principal design of all this was to convince the World of the Majesty and Power of the God of Israel that they might renounce their foolish Idolatries and Country Gods and consent in the worship of that One God who alone doth wondrous things this account the Psalmist gives of it that God wrought such visible and miraculous deliverances for Israel to make his glory and his power known among the Heathen The Lord hath made known his Salvation his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the Heathen Psalm 98. 2. That the Heathen might fear the name of the Lord and all the Kings of the Earth his glory i. e. that all Nations might worship God and all Kings submit their Crowns and Scepters to him Psal. 102. 15. that by this means they might be instructed in that important truth That the Lord is great and greatly to be praised that he is to be feared above all Gods for all the Gods of the Nations are Idols but he made the Heavens Psal. 96. 4 5. And as God set up the people of Israel as a visible demonstration to all the World of his power and providence so he committed his Laws and Oracles to them from whence the rest of the World when they pleased might fetch the best rules of life and the most certain notices of the divine will In such ways God instructed the World in former Ages by the light of Nature and the examples of good men and the Sermons of the Prophets and the publick example of a whole Nation which God chose for that very purpose But when long and sad experience had proved all these ways ineffectual to reform the World at last God sent his own Son into the World to make a full and perfect Declaration of his will to give the best rules of life and to encourage our obedience by the most express promises of a blessed Immortality This was one great design of Christ's appearing in the World to reveal and declare God to us Iohn 1. 18. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him and in Math. 11. 27. All things are delivered unto me of my Father no man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him That is God hath now committed unto Christ all the secret purposes of his Counsel concerning the Salvation of Mankind which were concealed from Ages None of the Prophets which lived before did so fully understand it nor have we any other certain way of knowing this but by the Revelation Christ hath made to us Thus in Iohn 14. 6 7. Iesus saith unto him I am the way the truth and the life no man