Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A76798
|
Expositions and sermons upon the ten first chapters of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to Matthew. Written by Christopher Blackwood, preacher to a Church of Christ in the city of Dublin in Ireland.
|
Blackwood, Christopher.
|
1659
(1659)
|
Wing B3098; ESTC R207680
|
612,607
|
923
|
at present believe and it seems to be covered yet shall it be known to the World in a little time But I see no absurdity why both these may not be meant so that the words are a consolation to them both under their reproaches and revilings of Beelzebub c. and under the small beginnings of the Gospel that what was now hid should be revealed and though their Doctrine were at present reproached yet time should discover it to be Gods truth V. 27. What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light and what ye hear in the ear that preach ye upon the house tops The meaning is whatsoever Doctrine ye have heard of me either in this Sermon preached unto you or whatsoever Doctrine at any other time I have or shall declare unto you in secret do you publish the same openly for that Christ means by house tops having respect to the Jewish buildings which were flat upon the house tops with battlements Deut. 22.8 Gods truth is not to ly smothering in our own breasts but we are to declare it to others Rom. 10.10 Psal 40.9 10. With the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation The World will not endure to have their deeds reproved hence they come not to the light Joh. 3.21 They say to the Seers See not and to the Prophets Prophesie not prophesie unto us smooth things Isai 30.10 Get ye out of the way turn aside out of the path v. 11. yet must the Preachers and Disciples of Christ speak and not hold their peace Isai 58.1 Hosea 4.1 Hosea 8.1 yea the whole counsel of God which is plain unto Teachers they are bound upon pain of avoiding guilt of soul bloud to declare unto the people Acts 20.26 27. so far as it shall be absolutely needfull to their salvation We may also see the excellency of the Gospel that when preached it will abide the Light which no other Doctrine is able to do As these Disciples were commanded to publish the Mysteries Christ declared to them viz. the calling of the Gentiles the end of the Jewish Ceremonies the fulness of Redemption in Christ the new Covenant c. so are other Preachers bound in like manner to publish what the Lord shall reveal to them out of his Word as to take up Christs Cross daily to repent of their sins V. 28. And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell Here is the fifth danger whereto they should be exposed if they preached what he bad them to wit that they would be in danger to be put to death To this Christ answers Fear not them which kill the body In the words two parts 1 A forbidding of false fear Fear not them which kill the body backt with a Reason because they are not able to kill the soul 2 An Exhortation to true fear of God but rather fear him which is backt with a Motive because he is able to destroy soul and body in Hell Fear not them which kill the body The sum of Christs speech is that we should not fear the loss of this perishing Life in respect of an everlasting Life and that they have no true fear of God in them who for fear of Tyrants do suffer themselves to be brought from the Confession of the Faith As if that Christ should say You have immortal souls which are not at the will of Tyrants but of God 1 Sam. 2.6 The Lord killeth and the Lord healeth he woundeth and maketh alive Whence is it that we are affrighted with terrours of men and deny the Faith or blushingly confess it or dissemble it but because our bodies are preferred before our eternal souls and whereas we think to escape death hereby shall we not incur a sorer death hereby even an everlasting death Is 66.24 Christ herein speaks to Christians that they should not thus fear Lu. 12.4 5. I say unto you my friends be not affraid of them which kill the body and though men may think this is no point of Friendship to let Christians suffer yet is it an high privilege to be called to suffer Phil. 1.29 To you it is given not onely to believe but to suffer So that experienced Christians have rejoyced herein Acts 5.41.16.25 Learn we to contemn our Lives in the cause of God so did Queen Hester cap. 4.16 If I perish I perish The three children Dan. 3.28 yielded their bodies that they might not worship nor serve any other God except their own God so Paul in sundry places Acts 20.24.21.13 2 Cor. 4.10 11. Phil. 1.20 2 Tim. 4.6 Rev. 12.11 17. It must needs be grievous for two such dear friends as soul and body to part but when we consider it is for the Lord why do we fear when for fear of being killed we shall not preach and witness Christ his truth we may look for every such denial to be cast into hell We may observe 1 That after this perishing life is past there remains another 2 The truth of God cannot be fully witnessed without peril of life 3 The disposing of that life to come is onely in the power of God not in the power of Pope Obj. But must we not fear Magistrates parents c Answ Yes but not when God and they come in competition Acts 5.29 The cruelty of Magistrates and parents can onely extend unto the body But are not able to kill the soul Whence see 1 That the soul and body are separable one from another 2 That the soul dies not with the body But rather fear him which is able to destroy soul and body in hell Here is a remedy against slavish fear even to have Gods fear in us We more feared the Pope with his Purgatory then God with his hell and we more trusted in the absolution of the Pope from Purgatory then in the true absolution of God from hell Luth. Tom. 4.334 This word rather is not a comparative but an adversative we should not fear man at all when he comes in competition with God So Victorian the Pro-Consul of Carthage being sollicited to Arrianism by the Embassadors of King Hunnerick answered thus Being assured of God and my Lord Christ I tell you what you may tell the King let him burn me let him drive me to the beasts let him torment me with all kinde of torments If I consent in vain am I baptized in the Catholick Church whom the tyrant afterward tortured with exceeding great tortures Victor Uticens l. 3. Wandal Persecut So the Prophet Isai 51.12 Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall dye and the son of man which shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy maker Moreover you know how afraid you are to offend a man which can hang you so that you fear the wrath of a King as you do the roaring of
receive them and relieve them even those who are the meanest members of his body Even as Rebecca when she entertained Eleazar Abrahams servant Gen. 24.17 and gave him water obtained a great reward so shall those who receive the little ones of Christ and give a cup of water to them In the name of a Disciple That is because he is my Disciple and cleaves to my Doctrine because he believes in me and belongs to Christ as Mark hath it cap. 9.41 This looking at Christ in the intention of the giver doth prove the rectitude and lustre of the action it nobilitates and commends it so that it 's done to Christ which is bestowed on a Christian and so Christ interprets it Mat. 25.40 If you do it upon other account as because he is your Tenant Servant Kinsman Friend though it may be an act of natural mercy yet doth not Christ esteem it as a kindness done to him In all our hospitality in general and for this in special ought we to eye Christ Learn we then that our deeds are esteemed of God according to our minde and intention provided the minde of the Intender be enlightened in his duty Verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his Reward The world will hardly believe that the meanest service done to Christ his Disciples will be acknowledged according to the intention and ability of the giver and that such action of so small valuation shall be rewarded hence Christ confirms it with an Asseveration Verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his Reward Yet shall he not have such a Reward herein as if the same were done to a Prophet God hath rewards affixt to all the services done for him but to some greater than other yet not by way of merit but of free grace as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 3.8 Every man shall receive a reward according to his own labour which reward flows not from any compact or from any commensuration but from Gods free grace Reward doth not always presuppose Merit as its correlate but onely labour or some preceding action Sometimes the reward is inferiour to the work as when a man works hard for a covetous person who rewards slenderly sometimes the reward is as much as the work this reward presupposeth merit sometimes the reward is far greater then the work as for a Prince for an hours service to give a man 10000 pound a year such is all our obedience in respect of that superabundant weight of glory Hence this reward is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a free gift Rom. 6.23 because all our works how great soever have no commensurate or proportionable value being compared with the reward Hence the reward of glory is called an inheritance which doth not presuppose any desert The Apostle saying The wages of sin is death doth not say eternal life is the wages of holiness but calls it the gift of God Rom. 6.23 Observe these things 1 The meanest service done to the meanest of the servants of Christ shall be acknowledged by Christ Matth. 25.36 Even Goats hair was not rejected when brought to the Sanctuary 2 There is a free gracious reward that God hath in store to distribute to them that receive persons because they belong to Christ 3 The Lord in the actions of Christians looks much upon the sincerity of their actings Zach. 7.5 To whom did ye fast did ye fast to me God not onely looks upon the sincerity of a King as Hezekiah Isai 38.3 5. but also of a poor servant Col. 3.22 23. q. d. Deceitfull servants have a double heart sincere servants have a single heart Reas 1 Because what is done in sincerity is done to God Zach. 7.5 This was Hezekiah's end Isai 38.3 Rev. 2.13 If I might have my wish I would chuse the basest work of a servant-maid before all the victories and triumphs of Alexander and Caesar Why Because here is God there is the devil the matter of the work is the same but the kinde and difference infinitely diverse Luth. in Gen. 29. He means it of works done in sincerity 2 Because sincere persons in what they do endeavour to approve themselves to Christ 2 Cor. 2.17 We are not of them who huxter the word of God but as of sincerity but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ 2 Cor. 4.2 commending our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of God 2 Thes 2.4 So we speak not as pleasing men but God which trieth our hearts 3 That so he may either condemn or crown the action condemn it if it shall onely have a pretence as in Jehu's destruction of Baal who did it not out of hatred of idolatry but to get a Kingdome See Hos 1.4 Hence Jehu is charged with murther I will avenge the bloud of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu or crown it when it is done in sincerity as in Cornelius prayers and alms Acts 10.2 Use Information what kinde of services we must bring unto the Lord even such as are sincere Imitate Nathaniel to be Israelites without guile Joh. 1.47 If we pretend love to the Lord let it be in sincerity Ephes 6.22 if we feed the flock of God let it be out of love Joh. 21.15 if we preach or take the oversight of a flock let it be willingly 1 Cor. 9.17 1 Pet. 5.2 Think not any thing well done wherein thou canst not appeal to God in the doing thereof when we come to die those things will comfort us most wherin we have had most respect to God and least to men It 's not the greatness of services we do but the truth that God accepts where there is sincerity though there may be diverse failings God knows how to overlook them See 2 Chron. 30.18 19 20. and Asa 2 Kings 14.15 2 Exhort 1 To strive to be sincere in what thou doest 1 The most glorious actions thou canst do are abominable without it Isai 66.3 He that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck why Because not done to God Matth. 23.29 Christ pronounces a wo on those who builded the tombs of the Prophets and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous why Because they did not do it out of love to holiness to keep the memory of holy men alive but to cover their malice against Christ 2 Cor. 10.18 2 Sincerity differences the actions of one man from another Sundry gross hypocrites have done actions outwardly glorious as Amaziah 2 Chron. 25.2 Jehu 2 Kings 10.28 29 31. Those who preacht Christ out of envy Phil. 1.16 Cain sacrificed as well as Abel Ezekiels worldly hearers came to hear as well as others Ezek. 33.31 3 The conscience is not satisfied in any services save those which are done in sincerity Now every man ought to please his conscience so did Paul in his preaching Gal. 1.10 Hence he had comfort 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is the testimony of our conscience 4 God is of a spiritual