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duty_n believe_v faith_n perform_v 1,107 5 7.0827 4 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A27575 A sermon preached before the Queen at White-hall, October 12. 1690 by William Beveridge ... Beveridge, William, 1637-1708. 1690 (1690) Wing B2114; ESTC R2113 15,061 37

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cry Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory And hence also it is that when God designed to make Man after his own image as like him as a creature could be he made him perfectly holy And now that this image is defaced in us if it be restored again to any man so that he becomes a new man he is said to be created after God that is after the likeness of God in righteousness and true holiness So that this is the great perfection wherein we were at first made and ought again to become like to God our Maker who therefore commands us to be holy as he is holy As he who hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation From whence it appears that though we cannot be holy in the same measure as God is who is so without and beyond all measure yet we should be so after the same manner as he is or rather our holiness should be of the same kind or nature with his and as like it as it is possible for it to be Hence therefore as Holiness when attributed to God denotes the purity and excellency of his divine nature whereby he is exalted above all things else so when attributed to men it signifies the purity and excellency of their nature whereby they are refined and raised up above the rest of mankind This the Apostle teacheth us where he opposeth holiness to uncleanness saying God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness And David where he calls the Saints that are upon earth the excellent implying that Saints as such excell all other persons by reason of their holiness that is the highest excellency which their nature is capable of Which therefore doth not consist in any particular Acts or Habits either of the soul or body or both together but in the rectitude or due temperament of our nature in general And indeed Holiness properly so called is nothing else but that pure and excellent frame or disposition of the whole man whereby all the faculties of the soul and members of the body are reduced to their primitive constitution and become such as God at first made and would still have them to be exerting themselves in their respective places and offices according to those rules which he hath set them So that to our perfecting Holiness as the Apostle speaks in the fear of God there is required a right and clear understanding a sound judgment a pure heart an obedient will a good conscience and regular affections placed every one upon its proper objects in a due manner And wheresoever the Soul if I may so speak is thus all of a-piece all over such as God would have it to be and so agreeable to his divine will there is true holiness and such a one may be truly said to be holy yea to be holy as God is holy as being pure and excellent according to his finite capacity as God himself is in his infinite perfections Now the true notion of holiness or sanctity being thus briefly stated we may easily understand what kind of persons those be which are here called Saints For in order to a man's being a true Saint He must first have so much knowledge of God and Christ as is necessary to the possessing of his mind with a due sense of his divine Majesty and with right apprehensions of the great mystery of our Salvation by Jesus Christ He must have a sound judgment in all things especially in the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith and in all the necessary duties required in the Gospel He must have a pure and sincere heart in believing all those Articles as revealed and in performing all such duties as required by God He must have a good conscience a conscience void of all offence both towards God and towards men He must have a pliable and obedient will ready upon all occasions to chuse whatsoever his understanding rightly informed dictates to be good and to refuse whatsoever he apprehends to be evil He must keep his affections all in their proper order fixed constantly upon such objects which they were at first fitted and designed for He must hate abhor and shun all manner of sin upon that account only because it is sin or the transgression of God's law and be heartily troubled that he was ever guilty of it He must love God with all his heart and soul and so above all things in the world besides He must bear no grudg hatred malice or ill-will against any person upon earth but love his neighbour as himself He must hunger and thirst after righteousness and desire nothing so much as to serve and please God and so to have his love and favour whatsoever it costs him He must not fear them which can kill the body but him only who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell He must trust in the Lord with all his heart and support himself under all the circumstances and occurrences of this life with an humble confidence of his goodness and mercy in Jesus Christ He must rejoyce in the Lord always both when he hath and when he hath not any thing else to rejoyce in He must be sober and temperate meek and humble gentle and peaceable faithfull to his word true to his friend loving to his enemy charitable to the poor kind and mercifull and just to all In brief he must be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord as knowing that his labour is not in vain in the Lord. And that he may be sure of For he who hath attained to such an excellent temper as this is is certainly a real and true Saint and therefore shall as certainly partake of that transcendent happiness which is here called the Inheritance of the Saints in light It is called an Inheritance or as the word signifies also a lot in allusion to that type of Heaven the land of Canaan which was divided among all the Children of Israel by lot and is all along in the Old Testament called their Inheritance And so certainly is Heaven in a proper and literal sense the Inheritance of the Saints For they being all regenerate and born again of God are properly his Children and as the Apostle rightly argues If children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ So that all the Saints or Sons of God in whatsoever age or place they were born again from the beginning to the end of the world they are all co-heirs and so have an equal right and title to this Inheritance not only to some part of it but to the whole and all and every one of them equally possess it all It is not like an earthly inheritance that is divided among the co-heirs some taking one part of it and some another But every one that hath any share in this heavenly inheritance enjoys it all himself
by sending his Holy Spirit of the same divine nature with himself into our Hearts which by degrees makes us also holy and spiritual and so in our capacities like unto himself and partakers of his own nature Now the great thing which he requires of us in order to his doing this great work for us is that we believe in him For he himself saith that we are sanctified by faith that is in him Not by believing only his Gospel in general to be true but by believing particularly in himself so as to have a sure trust and confidence on him to give us such illuminations and assistances of his Holy Spirit whereby we may be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God and so be made sincerely as he is infinitely pure and holy And indeed this is the first and great thing that we ought to believe and trust in our Saviour for and that which is the foundation of all our other expectations from him For we have no ground to expect either pardon or any other blessing at his hands untill we repent and be converted But if we firmly believe and depend upon him in the first place for grace to repent and turn to God and so to become holy and new creatures according to the promises that he hath made us to that purpose as he will then most certainly perform such promises to us so all the other blessings that he hath purchased for us will then follow in course For if we be truly sanctified and made holy then our sins will be all pardoned our persons justified our duties accepted God reconciled to us and at length our Souls eternally saved But all these things depend upon our being first sanctified by him as that doth upon our believing in him But Faith as the Apostle saith is the Gift of God and therefore if we desire to believe so as to be sanctified we must ask and expect it from him in the use of those means which he hath appointed both for the begetting and increasing of it We must reade and hear and meditate upon his Holy Word We must fast and pray and receive the Sacrament of our Lord's Supper For these are the ordinary means which God hath established in his Church whereby to make known himself unto us to convince us of the truth and certainty of his Promises and so work and confirm in us a true belief of them by the power of the Holy Ghost which for that purpose doth continually assist and influence the administration and performance of such duties which therefore are not onely holy duties in themselves but the means too whereby we may become holy But for that purpose we must perform not onely one or more but all of them so as to go through the whole course that God hath prescribed for the healing of our spiritual distempers and for the restoring us to a sound frame and constitution of mind wherein as I have shewn the nature of true holiness properly consists And that we must doe too not onely now and then but through the whole course of our lives so as to be constantly as much as possibly we can employed in some or other of these holy exercises not in a careless and superficial manner but heartily sincerely earnestly as for our lives for our lives our eternal lives in a great measure depend upon it For it is by our continual exercise of those holy duties and the Grace of God always accompanying of them that our hearts are insensibly taken off from sin and the world and raised up higher and higher towards God and Heaven till at length our whole Souls being sanctified by a quick and lively Faith in Christ we are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light And what cause have they who are so to give thanks as St. Paul here doth to God the Father for it For the whole of our Salvation from first to last must be ascribed unto him It is begun continued and ended all in him For it was he who so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life It was he who spared not this his Son but delivered him up to be tempted to be scourged to be spit upon to be arraigned condemned crucified and all for us and for our Salvation It was he who having raised up this his Son Jesus sent him to bless us by turning every one of us from his iniquities And made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him It was he who hath exalted him with his own right hand to be both a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance and remission of sins It is he who hath passed by the greatest part of mankind and hath revealed himself and his Son to us the unworthiest of all his creatures It was he who caused us to be born and bred within the Pale of his Holy Catholick Church and in one of the soundest and purest parts of it upon the face of the whole Earth It is he who still continues the means of grace to us and us to them and his blessing both to them and us It is he who gives us his holy spirit to mortifie the deeds of the flesh and to quicken us with newness of life to raise up our minds from the world and fix them upon himself to keep us from evil and to enable us to doe or suffer any thing we can for his sake It is he who calls upon us continually by the ministery of his Word to repent and believe the Gospel and gives us grace to doe it In a word It is he who hath sent me the unworthiest of all his ministers at this time to acquaint you in his Name how ye may be meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light and it is he alone can make you so And therefore all who are so made may well join with the Choire of Heaven in those Seraphick Anthems we find them singing in the Revelations Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb. Amen Blessing and glory and wisedom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen FINIS Mar. 9. 44. Psal 89. 35. Amos 4. 2. Heb. 12. 10. 2 Pet. 1. 4. Isa 6. 3. Rev. 4. 8. Ephes 4. 24. 1 Pet. 1. 15. 1 Thess 4. 7. Psal 16. 3. 1 Cor. 15. 58. Rom. 8. 17. Heb. 1. 2. Rev. 21. 7. 1 Cor. 3. 21 22. 1 Cor. 13. 12. 1 Joh. 3 2. Act. 26. 18. 1 Thess 5. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 9. 2 Reg. 6. 17. Act. 7. 55 56. Heb. 11. 27. Exod. 33. 20. Job 31. 23. Rev. 21. 23. Isa 60. 19. Joh. 17. 24. Matt. 17. 4. Heb. 12. 14. Tit. 2. 14. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Joh. 15. 5. Phil. 4. 13. Act. 26. 18. Ephes 2. 8. Joh. 3. 16. Rom. 8. 32. Act. 3. 26. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Act. 5. 31. Revel 7. 10 12.