Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A57159
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A sermon preached before the King upon the twenty eighth of March, 1669 by Edward Lord Bishop of Norwich.
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Reynolds, Edward, 1599-1676.
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1669
(1669)
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Wing R1284; ESTC R36786
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19,736
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44
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investigation is far below Angelical Learning But the Mysteries of the Gospel are so great that the glorious Angels gaze upon them with wonder and adoration These things saith the Apostle the Angels desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 alluding to the Cherubims with their faces on the Mercy-seat Exod 25.20 To principalities and powers is made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Eph. 3.10 This is one Branch of the Mystery of Godliness That Christ is seen of Angels 1 Tim. 3.16 This is one great business of the Angels about the Throne to ascribe power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing to the Lamb that was slain Revel 5.11 12. Again the highest natural knowledge in the world is no way Beatifical A man may as to all such learning be the greatest Scholar living and yet perish But the right knowledge of Christ by the Gospel will justifie and save those that have it By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many Isa 53.11 It is a knowledge which makes perfect Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man Eph. 4.13 2. The noblest Moral Attainments which men can arrive at by the utmost improvement of natural Reason alone of the most generous Principles of the precepts of the best Philosophers of the examples of the most eminent Heroes will none of it suffice to bring a man to Blessedness The Apostle would not have concluded better things then these to be but loss and dung if he might have been saved by them But there is no other name under heaven whereby salvation is to be had but by the Name of Christ Act. 4.12 Thus the supereminent excellencie of the Gospel of Christ doth appear by comparing it with all other excellent things the excellency of created innocency the excellency of the Law whether Moral or Ceremonial and the excellency of the highest Rational or Moral accomplishments We shall next demonstrate the excellency of the Gospel by considering it Absolutely in it self And here let us first take a view of the supernaturalness sublimity of it It is every where in Scripture called a Mystery the Mystery of Christ the Mystery of the Kingdom a great Mystery of Godliness which signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom speaks some wonderful and unknown thing The Apostle calleth it Hidden wisdom the deep things of God beyond the discovery of the noblest created Reason in the world That two natures should be in one Person that God himself should take flesh that a pure Virgin should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of God as the Council of Ephesus stileth her that he who blesseth all should be made a curse himself who is Lord over all should become a servant himself that the Prince of life should dye and the Lord of Glory be put to shame that the sin should be punished and the sinner pardoned that the Son of David should be the Lord of David and the Son of Mary the Saviour of Mary and he who made the world be born into the World four thousand years after the world was made these were Mysteries shut up in the bosome of God undiscoverable by any created wisdom till he himself was pleased to reveal them Again let us here consider the sanctity of the Gospel as a great Mystery of Godliness The whole design and contrivance thereof being 1. To set forth the glorious righteousness of an holy God that neither his verity nor sanctity might be impaired by his clemency and mercy unto sinners For though he spared them that he might in them shew the riches of his Grace yet he spared not his Son but delivered him up for us all that in him he might declare his righteousness Rom. 3.25 2. Another design of the Gospel was to restore lapsed man unto that primitive holiness wherein he had been created Col. 3.10 for the grace of God which bringeth salvation doth also teach us to deny ungodliness and wordly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from iniquity Tit. 2.11 14. and from our former vain conversation 1 Pet. 1.18 And this the Gospel doth not onely by the precepts thereof as a Rule of holiness but by the grace thereof as a Principle of holiness helping us to do what we are commanded Efficit Fides quod lex jubet Lex imperat fides impetrat saith St. Austin The Law onely commands but faith obtains help to do what is commanded The Law was given to demonstrate our impotencie but Grace was given to heal and to remove it Again here offereth it self to our view the admirable contexture of justice and mercy the unspeakable contrivance of Redemption and salvation by the Gospel There seemeth to be a kinde of conflict between the Attributes of God as St. Bernard hath observed Iustice and Truth resolved to punish sin Moray and Grace resolved to save sinners No created wisdom could have found out a way to effect this so to sever the sin from the sinner that Iustice might satisfie it self upon the one and Mercy magnifie it self upon the other This could not be done but by such a Mediator and Surety as might be both able and willing to suffer the wrath of God and having so done victoriously to rise up and triumph over Hell and Death All this is sound in the Lord Iesus In him man suffer'd In him God conquered His sufferings valid for satisfaction of Justice and impetration of favour and by the infinite dignitie of his Person made applicable to the persons of all that should believe· Grace given unto them that they may believe and consent to their own Salvation And thus all parties are satisfied and all willing· God satisfied by the obedience of his Son This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Christ satisfied with the salvation of his body He shall see the travel of his soul and shall be satisfied Believers satisfied with their pardon and inheritance When I awake I shall be satisfied with thine Image God willing to pardon sinners Christ willing to Redeem sinners and sinners made willing by the Spirit of the Father and the Son to enjoy the benefit of so great a redemption and to obey the precepts of so holy a Gospel And thus Mercy and Truth are met together Righteoutness and peace have kissed each other All the Religions that ever were in the world could never shew so glorious a temperament of exquisite Iustice of most gratuitous Mercy of unsearchable wisdom as is revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 4. Let us consider the necessity of the Gospel by the Grace and Righteousness whereof alone we are saved through faith in Christ Eph. 2.8 A thing may be necessary to an end 1. By way of a Temporary mutable sanction So
A SERMON Preached before The King UPON The twenty eighth of March 1669. BY EDVVARD Lord Bishop OF NORWICH· Published by his Majesties Command LONDON Printed by Ia. Cotterel for Philemon Stephens at the Kings Arms in Chancery-lane 1669. A SERMON Preached before the King UPON The twenty eighth of March 1669. Philippians 3.8 Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord. OUr blessed Saviour compareth the Kingdom of Heaven to an hid Treasure and a pearl of great price which a wise Merchant having found sold all that he had to buy it This hidden treasure is our life which is hid with Christ in God this pearl of great price is that which the Apostle calls the unsearchable riches of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith St. Paul unto whom the Lord from heaven did reveal this treasure and pearl hath in this chapter discovered himself to be one of those wise Merchants who parted with all for this inestimable purchase He looked on himself before as a rich man in things pertaining unto God Great dignitie of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin an Hebrew of the Hebrews Great strictness of Religion a Pharisee separated from the ways of the world Great learning brought up at the feet of Gamaliel and taught according to the perfect manner of the Law of the fathers Great zeal and fervency even unto persecution Great sanctitie in his own opinion I was alive without the law once as touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless These things before he came to the knowledge of Christ he eesteemed very gainful advantagious and meritorious to salvation for he had profited in the Iews religion above many his equals But when it pleased God to reveal his Son unto him he consulted no more with flesh and bloud he set no more value on meer carnal priviledges or performances looked on them as loss and dung on all his own righteousness but as a menstruous cloath durst put no confidence in any thing of his own but in the alone Righteousness of Christ Jesus his Lord in the fellowship of his sufferings and in the power of his resurrection He would glory in nothing but the Cross of Christ he would relye on nothing but the Grace of Christ he would lose all that he might win Christ. I have chosen these words to open the excellencie of the Gospel of Christ and of the saving knowledge of him thereby in comparison whereof the Apostle esteemed all his other dignities priviledges righteousness performances upon which he had formerly built the hopes of his salvation to be all but loss and dung I begin with the former of these the excellency of Evangelical Doctrine called by the Apostle a glorious Gospel a ministration of righteousness which exceeds in glory a word of life a Gospel of salvation the riches of the world a treasure accompanied with the excellency of Divine Power a great mystery of godliness with other the like elogies setting forth those unsearchable riches of Christ therein as draw forth the wonder and adoration both of Men and Angels We shall consider the excellency of the Gospel 1. Comparatively 2. Absolutely For the former I shall not put the whole world nor all the Diadems Honours Pleasures and Revenues thereof into the balance with Christ he having assured us that it will little profit a man to win them all and to lose his soul for though a man could win the whole world yet within a few years he would lose it again but the soul being once lost is lost for ever never to be recovered But I. we shall compare the Gospel with the state of Innocency in Paradise It cannot be denyed but that there were divers things in that state of primitive integrity wherein Adam excelled any of his sinful off-spring He was made then wholly upright without any mixture of corruption or infirmity no evil of sin to defile him no evil of sorrow to disquiet him Whereas now the holiest men are commanded and constrained to cry out Forgive us our trepasses deliver us from evil He had no war between the flesh and spirit no inward combate between the law of the members and the law of the minde no temptation of lust to intice or draw him away from God Whereas the holiest men are now forced to complain O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death He did not in that state stand in need of a Mediator of reconciliation to restore him to the favour of God wherein he stood right and intire by the law of his creation He had no guilt to fill him with shame or fear or to drive him away from the presence of the Lord. Yet in some respect the grace of the Gospel is more excellent then the state of Adam in Paradise 1. Herein is the manifestation of more glorious mercy and wisdom For it was most consonant to the goodness of God to make reasonable creatures righteous at first but when they wilfully fell from their created integrity it was wonderful and free mercy to restore them again wonderful and glorious wisdom to do it by so great a condescension and contrivance as the Incarnation and Passion of theSon of God There lay no bond upon God at all to shew mercy to a creature which had cast him off and rebelled against him He might pari jure have left men unredeemed as he did the Angels and have glorified himself in their just perdition It was meer and alone mercy which made the difference He took not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham he took Heb. 2.16 2. By the Gospel the humane nature is more highly advanced then it could be in the first Adam had he persisted in his integrity First in the person of Christ in whom it was Hypostatically united to the divine Nature and advanced far above all principality and power might and dominion and every name that is named Angels and Principalities and Powers are made subject unto him He is the first-born of every creature and hath in all things the preeminence 2. In all those who are spiritually descended from him and estated by union and communion with him in his fulness both of Grace and Glory For certainly to be where Christ is and to behold his Glory when he shall come to be admired in those that believe to be like unto him to see him as he is to sit down with him on his Throne to be joynt Heirs with him in his Glory which are some of those exceeding great and precious promises which in the Gospel are made unto true Believers are more high and honourable expressions of the dignity of the Sons of God by gracious Adoption then