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A61953 A sermon preach'd before the King at White-Hall, May the twentieth, MDCLXXVII by John Sudbury ... Sudbury, John, 1604-1684. 1677 (1677) Wing S6139; ESTC R23480 14,545 36

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A SERMON PREACH'D before the KING AT White-Hall MAY the Twentieth MDCLXXVII BY JOHN SVDBVRY D. D. And DEAN of Durham Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY Published by His Majesties special Command In the SAVOY Printed by Tho. Newcomb and are to be sold by Robert Boulter at the Turks-head in Cornhill over against the Royal Exchange 1677. MATTHEW 28.20 And lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World THese Words were spoken by Christ to his Apostles a little before his Ascension into Heaven when he was about to send them abroad into the World with that Commission in the Words immediately before Go Ye therefore and Teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you To which purpose having told them before by what Authority he sent them and how Able he was to carry them through all the Difficulties and Dangers which were before them in the former Verse All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth He tells them here how ready they should find him on all occasions in which his Presence should be needfull to them Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World In which Words he speaks of his Presence not with one of them onely whom he had made the Head and Chief of them all commending them to his Direction and Commanding them to submit themselves to his Authority But as he joined them altogether in one and the same Commission in the former Verse Go ye therefore and Teach all Nations So he speaks here of his Presence with them All Lo I am with you And not with them onely and with those among all Nations whom he sent them to Teach and to Baptize For he would not have them think that he sent them to lay the Foundation of a Church which should Stand and Fall together with them for want of his Power and Presence with it afterward when they were dead and gone and therefore he tells them that should never be wanting to it so long as the World should stand Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World This Presence of Christ with his Apostles in their Generation and with his Apostolick Church among all Nations in that and in all succeeding Generations to the end of the World is here commended to our Consideration with a Note of Attention Lo or Behold I am with You. For it is a point which requires a more than ordinary Consideration because it is not easie to conceive how he that is exalted far above all Heavens can be Present with so many Men on Earth when he is at so great a distance from them and many of them at so great a distance from each other And as it requires it upon that account so it deserves it upon another which is the great importance of it as we shall see before I end Now first for his Presence with them when he said I am with you he did not exclude the Presence of the Father and of the Holy Ghost For speaking of the Holy Ghost John 14.16 he saith I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you And that they might not think the Holy Ghost so much another Comforter that in sending him he would withdraw Himself from them he tells them in the next Verse I will not leave you Comfortless I will come to you And speaking of the Father at the 23 Verse of the same Chapter he saith If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him But because he had spoken to them oftentimes of his departure from them and perceived that sorrow had filled their heart Joh. 16.6 because he had said this to them he tells them for their comfort that he would not so depart from them but that he would still be with them Lo I am with you alway 2. When he said I am with you he did not speak of his bodily presence They could not well so much mistake him if they did believe and remember what he had often told them Me ye have not always Joh. 12.8 I go to the Father and ye shall see me no more Joh. 16.10 and at the 28 Verse of the same Chapter I leave the world and go to the Father Or if they could be so incredulous or forgetful it could not be long before they would see their errour if they would believe their own eyes for it was not long after that while they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight Acts 1.9 And though it follows in the next Verse that while they looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven They knew very well that would not be till the end of the world Acts 3.21 Whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began But what ever we may think of them we find that others have so much mistaken him as to alledge these words to prove the Ubiquity of his Body which is contrary to the nature of a Body and all the differences that are or can be imagined between his Body and all other Bodies cannot give it a property which is repugnant to the nature of a Body for then it should not be a Body There have been likewise and still are great disputes about his Bodily presence in the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud And for want of better Arguments many strange Tales have been told of Miracles which have been wrought to prove it but they are so absurd and impertinent that it is almost a miracle that any men should be so void of shame as to report them or any men or women so void of understanding as to believe them For though he that hath all power in heaven and in earth can do any thing that he will he never did nor ever will do any thing that is absurd or impertinent And many Tales of his visible appearance sometimes in the form of a Lamb sometimes of a little Child and sometimes in the substance of flesh and bloud which are reported in Authors of no small account are so absurd that if the Books in which they are to be read were not easie to be produc'd it might be
Canoniz'd were Saints but of those Saints who are in the bosome of Abraham For they who are in the bosome of Abraham can know no more of us than he could know of them who came out of his loins or if they can it is more than we can know But he who is in the bosome of the Father is with us We need not say of him Rom. 10.8 Who shall go up into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above His Ascension into Heaven is so far from making a greater distance between him and us that the higher he is ascended the more present he is with us as God who is the most high is the most present every where But to make them Patrons of Corporations Cities Countreys and Kingdoms and to call upon them not onely to pray for us but to help us and to worship them as the givers of those things which none but God can give is not onely to make them Saints but Gods which is not true Religion but Idolatry And though Learned men may think to excuse themselves from that Idolatry by subtil distinctions of Worship they cannot excuse the multitude of rude and ignorant people who offer up their prayers to them and adore and worship them as the Donors of those things which they ask of them It is enough that we honour the memory and bless God for the happy departure of them who have lived and died in the true profession of that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints and that we pray to God to give us grace to be followers of them as they were of Christ though we do not offer up our prayers to them nor seek help of them in time of need And that we honour the Blessed Virgin the Mother of our Lord as blessed among Women though we do not call her the Queen of Heaven nor think her Son so much a Child as to be still at her command We have no precept or example in the Scriptures for Adoration or Invocation of any of them we have both for Christ and we have his promise Joh. 14. ●3 that whatsoever we shall ask in his name he will do it that the Father may be glorified in the Son But we have no promise that whatsoever we shall ask in the name of any Saint he will do it that the Father or the Son may be glorified in the Saint There is much more to be said of the importance of this point if the time would permit For it is a point which hath the same influence upon the whole Body of our Religion which the Head hath upon the Body The Faith by which we live is called the Faith which is by him Acts 3.16 not onely because it comes by hearing his Word but because that Word is made effectual in the hearts of them that hear it by the power and efficacy of his grace The Sacraments in which we are made partakers of him have no such virtue in them without him The Water with which we are Baptiz'd may serve to wash away the filth of the flesh but it is his Spirit that makes it the Laver of Regeneration The Bread and Wine in the other Sacrament may serve to nourish our Bodies but it is his Presence that makes them food for our Souls That which he saith to his Disciples Joh. 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing is as true of every one of us in the things which concern our everlasting Salvation For what can we do unless he prevent us with his grace and further us with his continual help in all our works begun continued and ended in him And that which St. Paul saith of himself Phil. 4.13 I can do all things through Christ which strengthneth me is as true of us for what doth he require of us which we cannot do by the help of that grace which he is able and ready to afford us But when he saith I am with you alway to the end of the world he puts us in mind that the world will have an end and if that would put an end to his presence with us it would not be so much for our comfort that he will be with us so long as it would be for our grief and sorrow that he would be no longer For nothing that hath an end can satisfie the desire of Souls that are immortal But as the end of this world is the beginning of another world which shall have no end so the end of this presence shall be the beginning of another presence which shall be Co-eternal with that world Here he is with us there we shall be with him Here he is with us to give us grace and strength to overcome the world there we shall be with him to partake with him the honour and glory which he hath promised to them that overcome Rev. 3.21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne To which purpose he is gone before to prepare a place for us that where he is there we may be also Joh. 14.2 3. And he will come again at the end of the world to call us to the inheritance of a Kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world Matth. 25.34 In a word Here he is with us even unto the end of the world There we shall be with him world without end AMEN FINIS