there required but so many several Parts of the Image of God which we have Lost Are they not the Dispositions of His Mind the Attributes of His Will and the Methods of His Providence that by the Practice of them we may be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect St. Matth. 5. ult 4. And are not the Apostles particularly careful to instill this Principle into us not only in the Text but every where throughout their Epistles that For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the Works of the Devil 1 John 3.8 That this is the Will of God this is the great design of the Gospel even your Sanctification 1 Thes 4.3 Do they not resolve the Substance of Christianity into this That we be followers of God Eph. 5.1 That we be Holy as God is Holy 1 Pet. 1.20 That if we have heard Him and learn'd Him as the truth is in Jesus we shall put off the Old Man which is Corrupt and be renewed transformed in the Spirit of our Mind and put on the New Man which is Created after God in Righteousness and Holiness of Life Ephes 4.24 5. And are not all true Christians who have resigned themselves to the Direction of their Religion are they not said to be new Created Eph. 2.16 To be new Begotten 1 Joh. 5.18 To be Joyned to the Lord Adopted into His Family and to become his Children 1 Cor. 6.17 Joh. 17.24 Rom. 8.16 This then is the specific Difference of Christianity that it rectifies our Nature and cleanses us throughout in Body Soul and Spirit And therefore if we are not thus renewed in Every Point we may assume the Name but in truth We are not Christians For the Foundation of God says the Apostle standeth sure and has this Seal Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 He then upon whom the Gospel has not this Effect He whose Nature is not changed and whose Mind is not renewed is not upon this Foundation He is in the same Condition at the present as He would have been if our Saviour never had appeared For He is a Saviour only to those who obey Him Heb. 10. And thus it appears That the End of the Promises and of all that our Saviour did and taught is this That we may be Partakers of the Nature of God And this is the First and the Principal Assertion in the Text. I proceed to the Consideration of the Second namely this viz. II. Secondly That the only Means to attain this End or the only Way to partake of the Nature of God is to escape the Corruptions that are in the World thro Lust Having Escaped or by the means of Escaping the Corruptions of the World we may be Partakers of the Divine Nature This is the plain Construction of the Words and thus much they Import at least That the Corruptions of the World and the Nature of God are Incompatible that they cannot subsist in the same Subject that we must be free from the one before we can attain the other That unless we Escape the Corruptions of the World we cannot but if we do Escape them we shall attain by the Grace of God to a Participation of His Nature By the World we understand The Pleasures and Allurements of it or those Grateful Satisfactions that it yields to our Inferiour Sensual Desires By the Corruptions of the World we understand Those vicious and destructive Habits which we have brought upon our selves by an Over-value and an Inordinate Enjoyment of it Or those ill Effects which these Terrene and Sensual Pleasures have had upon us in that they have imposed upon our Reason Corrupted our Integrity and Depraved our Nature The Soundness of the Mind consists in this That we preserve the Authority of our Reason that we Judge and Chuse and Love and Enjoy according to the Value of the Object the Nature of the Thing and the Command of God That all our Faculties fulfill their End and perfect their Design That we gratifie all our Genuine Desires and improve in all our Interests But to exceed these Measures to neglect our greatest Good to make no use of our Noblest Powers to starve our Best Capacities on the one hand and to load and nauseate our Inferior Appetites on the other to be governed by them and resolved into them is the Depravity the Corruption of a Reasonable Creature The Humane Nature or our Powers of Judging truly of Loving wisely and of Acting freely are destroyed So that all the several Instances of sensual and worldly Pleasures that overcome our Reason and gain a Dominion over us are styled in the Text by an easie Metaphor The Corruption that is in the World through Lust or through the Power of Inordinate Desire Wherefore then to Escape the Corruptions of the World is to Rectifie our Judgment and Reform our Manners to Change our Affections and Flee from all the Baits and Opportunities of Vicious Actions To recede from all our former Notions of our Happiness and from all our Consequent Affections Desires and Course of Life and attain to another Sense of things to a Right Opinion to Suitable Desires to a Chearful Will and Vigorous Endeavours Informed and Governned by the Will of God It is to recover the True the Natural and the Perfect Temper of our Minds which is corrupted by the Pleasures of the World and to enjoy those Pleasures for the time to come in such Degrees and Measures as may consist with the Laws of Reason and the Safety of all our Interests And though it is not possible for us to preserve our selves in a Continued Course of perfect Health Though we cannot keep the Balance always and exactly even between the Soul and the Body in this Imperfect State Yet we may attain to a perfect Soundness both of Judgment and Affection We may Resolve our Happiness into our Duty we may both understand and hate the turpitude of Vice We may frame a steady Resolution to Escape it We may always stand upon our Guard And whensoever we are Polluted For in many things we all offend we may Cleanse our selves as soon as we discern it by a true Repentance This is to Escape the Corruptions of the World according to the Measure and Capacity of a Man And that thus to Escape the Corruptions of the World is the only way to become Partakers of the Nature of God is evident beyond Exception For a State of Bondage to the Corruptions of the World is the Sensual the Brutal Nature that pursues the present Appetite without Respect It is directly contrary to the Laws of Reason or the Nature of God and is therefore inconsistent with it But to Assert our Liberty to Escape from under their Dominion to throw off all those evil Habits which we have superinduced upon our selves will raise our Minds again and restore us to the same Condition we were in before A Participation of
A SERMON PREACHED Before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL On Wednesday March 22. 1692. Being the Fourth Wednesday in LENT By J. LAMBE Rector of Wheathamstead in Hartfordshire and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their MAJESTIES Published by Her Majesty's Special Command LONDON Printed by Tho. Warren for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1693. A SERMON Preach'd before the QUEEN 2 PETER i. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust THAT we may be Partakers of the Nature of God! why were we not always so Was not this the Distinction the Essential Difference of Man That he was made in the Image and after the Likeness of God Gen. 1.26 And was not this Image of God or the Freedom of our Choice the Holiness of our Will and all the Impressions of universal Righteousness upon our Minds were not these I say supported by Laws and defended by such Assistances as were sufficient to preserve them Whence is it then that Man the only Being upon Earth that understands himself should be also the only Being that Rebels against the Law of his Creation That he of all the rest should Degenerate and become the Contempt and Scorn of Nature What shall we say Has Providence overlook'd us Has God forgotten us Has He neglected the most Excellent Part of the Visible Creation for whose sake the rest were made and suffered it to be Lost No surely For His Kingdom ruleth over all and He upholdeth all things by the word of his Power Heb. 1.3 But Peccability or that we may Chuse amiss is implied in our Power of Chusing and this this Liberty by us abused is the only Cause of our Misery our Shame and Ruine For notwithstanding all the Advantages of inward Impressions and outward Revelations yet the Generality of Men by a Constant Conversation with Sensual Objects destroy their Reason and corrupt their Vertue till their very Nature is Changed till they are sunk and lost in an Inferiour Wretched Brutal Life But God who considers our frame and remembers that we are but Men Psal 103.14 looks down upon us with Compassion Invites us to return to our selves again to our primitive Integrity to all the Beauty of our first Creation and encourages our Endeavours by the Manifestation of Himself His Power and Glory to us ver 2. by Additional Rewards by exceeding great and precious Promises in the Gospel of His Son Whereby or by whom are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises That by these by the Power and Efficacy of these upon our Minds we may be partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust Upon which Words that I may discourse with the greater Plainness and Advantage I shall endeavour to reduce their Sense their whole Intention into these following Propositions 1. First That the Chief Design of the Gospel of our Saviour is to make us Partakers of the Nature of God II. Secondly That the only Means to attain this End or the only Way to partake of the Nature of God is to escape the Corruptions of the World through Lust III. Thirdly and Lastly That those exceeding great and precious Promises which this most Holy Gospel hath assured to all who comply with its Design are a sufficient Motive to us to strive with all our Heart to escape the Corruptions of the World that we may partake of the Nature of God I begin with the First of these viz. 1. That the Chief Design of the Gospel of our Saviour is to make us Partakers of the Nature of God Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these or for this End and to this Intent that We may partake of the Divine Nature That being provoked by a firm Belief and a stedfast Expectation of these Rewards we may aspire with all our Heart after a Participation of the Nature of God And for the Clearer Demonstration of this most useful Truth I shall briefly proceed in this following Method 1. First I shall take a view of the Nature of God in general as far as it falls under our Conception 2. Secondly I shall consider in what Sense and under what Limitations we Frail and Mortal Men may be said to partake of the Nature of God 3. Thirdly and Lastly I shall endeavour to make it manifest That thus to partake of the Nature of God according to our Capacity is the Vltimate End and the Chief Design of the Christian Institution 1. First I shall take a view of the Nature of God in general as far as it falls under our Conception It is true indeed the Divine Hypostasis or the naked Essence of God is far above out of our Reach the more we pry into it the more we shall be sensible of our Ignorance our Vanity and Rashness We may Confound and Tire our Reason but shall never Master and Subdue the Object There is no Proportion between the Notion and the Faculty No bounded Understanding can lay hold upon Infinity no Created Being can trace the Footsteps of Eternal Ages or fix his Thoughts upon a vast Immensity without Repulse without Confusion And therefore in our Contemplation of God the first Distinct and Clear Conception that we frame is this That He is Incomprehensible But however though our Mind is unequal to the Attributes of God though we cannot contain or enjoy them in their Infinite Degrees yet by those little Glimmerings of Reason by those Powers of inferring one thing from another which we find in our selves we certainly Know in general that He who is the Spring the Principle and Original of all Existence from whom they derive and in whom they resolve is Himself endued with all Possibilities of Happiness and Perfection For what can be hid from His Knowledge or kept from his Possession who is the Cause of All things God therefore is but One Existing of Himself intirely Independent and under no Controul His Being is Unchangeable his Knowledge is Infinite and his Duration is Eternal He fills all Places with his Presence and over-rules all second Causes by an Almighty Power His Will is always Pure and Holy as it is Absolute and Free determined to the best and wisest Ends and managed by the most perfect Wisdom Justice Truth and Goodness His Decrees are Uncontroulable the best in their Design certain in their Event without Possibility of ill Success These and all things else that are better than their Contraries are bound up in and Inseparable from the Notion of God who is Infinite in all Perfections 2. But if this be the Nature of God How is it possible for us poor bounded sinful frail and mortal Men to become Partakers of it And this is the Second Thing to be Considered And by the Account which has been given of the Nature of God it
appears That some of his Attributes are so Absolute a Property so Essential to the Deity that they cannot be Imparted They Exist intirely and solely in Himself That more than One should be ONE or First or Self-existent the Cause of all things Infinite or Immense is a Contradiction These and some others admit of no Degrees and are therefore Incommunicable But however there is something of God in the very Nature of Man Essential to us and Inseparable from us which no other Part of the Visible World can boast of For we move from our selves in some degree as God does we act for the sake of such Ends as we our selves propose We Reason Judge Reflect and are truly styled a Conscious Being We penetrate the Dimensions of our Little World and our Soul is present every where within her Bounds And thus the humane Nature Resembles the Divine Exemplumque Dei quisquis est in Imagine parva But this Assimilation is necessary it is Inseparable from our Nature and therefore cannot be the Subject-matter of a Law Wherefore then by a Participation of the Nature of God when it is urged upon us as a Duty or proposed as a worthy End we understand a faint Resemblance an imperfect Imitation of those Divine Perfections which are Absolute only in God but yet are Competent in a Good Degree to all his Reasonable Creatures Competent I say not Necessary or Essential to us for then there would have been no Room for Choice or Vertue And thus if we had not been wanting to our selves we might have preserved and by the Grace of God we may yet recover a fair Proportion of the Purity of His Mind and the Holiness of his Will of his Wisdom and Providence of His Mercy and Justice of His Truth and Goodness with which our Nature was ennobled and from which we so unhappily fell And this is the Participation of the Nature of God which is made our Duty in the Text It is the Imitation of those most Excellent Rules by which he Governs the Freedom of his Choice and Exercises His vast unbounded Power It is a good degree of that Universal Righteousness which directs the Dispensations of His Providence and knits them all together into the most Excellent Order and Agreement And thus 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Participation of the Disposition of God an Imitation of His Way and manner of acting It is to govern our selves in our narrow Sphere of Action and in all Relations according to His Example and Command It is to subdue our Will to His our Inclinations and Imperfect Reasonings to His most perfect Methods of proceeding For it is not only to do what He Commands but to Preferr it to Love and Chuse our Duty to be united to it and in our Proportion and Capacity to be what the Law Requires To act by the same Principle to move by the same Spirit to entertain the same Opinions of what is Good and Evil and in every thing to Conform our selves to his most perfect Reason This is to partake of the Nature of God And according to this Account it is expressed in Scripture by His Image and His Likeness Gen. 1.26 and this Image of God upon our Souls is explained by Knowledge Col. 3.10 By Holiness of Life Ephes 4.24 By the Mind and Disposition of God Phil. 2.5 And finally To abide in the Father and in the Son is to abide in the Practice of that which they had heard and had been taught from the Beginning 1 John 2.24 And as for those places of Scripture which denote a more Mysterious Union between the Souls of pious Men and God they are not understood as Declarations of our Duty simply but rather as the Rewards of a great Affection and a zealous Vertue or of those Divine Delights and Pleasures which will fill the Minds of those who thus unite themselves to God That is the Second 3. I proceed to the Third and Last Particular and shall endeavour to make it Manifest That thus to partake of the Nature of God according to our Capacity is the Vltimate End and the Chief Design of the Christian Institution Whereby are given unto u exceeding great and precious Promises that or for this End that by these by the mighty force of so great Rewards we may be Partakers of the Divine Nature The Religion then it self is a Body of Principles and Rules of Life for the Restoration of our Nature to a Participation of the Nature of God And the Promises annexed are made subservient to this as to their Last Design That by these we may be Partakers of the Nature of God It was the Loss of our first Integrity by unreasonable Will and vicious Appetites It was our falling short of the Glory and defacing the Image of God upon our Souls which was the Occasion of our Saviour's Manifestation in the World That He the Seed of the Woman might break the Serpent's head Gen. 3.15 That by Him our Loss might be repaired our Bruises healed and our Decayes recovered There can be therefore no Dispute but His design is to destroy those Wicked and Ungodly Habits in which our Misery Consists and to restore us to the Government of our Reason and the Image of God again which was our Original Felicity The Gospel of our Saviour is Salvation Health and Redemption to Mankind but we are not capable of Salvation any other way but by the Reformation of our Manners and the Raising of our Nature out of that Degenerate Condition it is in to a Conformity with the Life of God For we cannot be happy but in the way of our Nature And therefore if our Saviour had redeemed us from the Guilt and Punishment of our Sins and not from our Iniquity which cannot be supposed yet even this would have been no great Advantage It could not properly be called the bringing of Salvation to us Because we should have been the same Imperfect Wretched Beings still that we were before Thus Reason will perswade That to save a Man is to restore him to the Perfection of His Nature But why should we Consider the Probability of the thing in reason when the Religion it self declares its own design so plainly That it is Impossible we should mistake it 1. For the Prophets of old many Ages before it was revealed have represented it as a Law of Righteousness that should be seated in the inward parts and purifie its Proselytes from all their filth Jer. 31.33 Dan. 9.24 2. And no sooner had our Saviour Himself begun to instruct the People in His Religion but He lays down this as His First His Fundamental Principle Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God St. John 3.3 and Verse 7. Marvel not that I say unto you your Nature must be changed ye must be born again 3. And if we look into the Religion it self what are all or at least the greater Number of the Duties
the Nature of God is our First and Perfect Temper This we Corrupted by the Pleasures of the World But if we Escape the Corruptions of the World we recover our selves again and are ipso facto re-invested in the Nature of God We return of Course to all the Pleasures and Advantages of our former State And thus it appears That the only way to become Partakers of the Nature of God is to Escape the Corruption that is in the World through Lust And this is the Second Proposition I proceed but very briefly to the Third and Last viz. III. That those exceeding great and precious Promises which are Assured to all who comply with the Design of the Gospel and become Partakers of the Nature of God are a sufficient Motive to us to use the Means which are prescribed or to Escape the Corruptions of the World Or That the Rewards Proposed are a Reasonable Inducement as well to pursue the End it self as to use the Means in order to it That Escaping the Corruptions of the World we may partake of the Nature of God The Possessions the Glories and the Pleasures of the World are so Exceeding grateful to Corrupted Appetites and so Conducive to our Mistaken Interests that they prejudice our Minds and stop our Ears against the Just Advice of those who would perswade us That our Sense is Vitiated and our Pleasures are Deceitful that they are Mischievous to us at the present and will be Fatal in the Issue And therefore nothing less than a positive Command back'd with the Sanction of the severest Punishment and the Promise of a great Reward of Pleasures far superiour to those we now enjoy supposing they were indeed what they seem to us will ever reduce us to a sober Sense or perswade us to deny our selves and Escape the Corruptions of the World But such are the Promises annexed to the Religion of our Saviour they are so Great so Exceeding precious that they ought to carry all before them There is nothing can compare with them and therefore if we have any Sense we shall forbear or do or suffer any thing that we may attain them Let us but consider what they are and how they support their Character and we shall be forced to grant That the Motive is Irresistible From the very moment then that we Escape the Corruptions of the World we enter upon another and a better Life upon a State of the most perfect Happiness which shall Improve upon us and Continue to Eternity It is perfected indeed in Heaven but it begins on Earth and we shall feel the mighty Advantages of the Change even in this Imperfect State For now our Nature is restored our Infirmities are healed and our Sins are pardoned our Souls are now refreshed our Conscience is at Ease our Minds are raised and we may come with Boldness to the Throne of Grace Matth. 11. ult Ephes 3.12 An humble Confidence and a perfect Love shall banish all our Fears 1 John 4.18 We now shall pass from one degree of Grace unto another till we come to the fulness of the Stature of Christ till we are settled in a Blessed Hope till our Assurance shall be full Heb. 6.11 Ephes 4.13 Now we shall be under the Protection of the Holy Spirit He shall direct and guide us through all the Dangers of This present Life prevent Temptations assist us in them and find out a way for our Escape John 16. 1 Cor. 10.13 Whatsoever we need shall be supplied whatsoever we ask we shall receive Mat. 7. Luk. 11.9 whatsoever we are capable of receiving we shall Enjoy For we are united now to God Himself John 10.35 We are his Temples His peculiar place of Residence 1 Cor. 3.17 But oh what sensible Touches of Unspeakable Pleasures what Resolution what Alacrity of Spirit what Ecstasies of Joy what Irradiations of Love must needs arise from such a Presence of God upon the Mind What a perfect Contentation in Life what Hope what Chearfulness in Death For indeed to Die is Gain Phil. 1.21 it is an Improvement still of the Life of God It brings us to the Euge bone Serve Well done good and faithful Servant enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord St. Mat. 25.21 Into those Inexpressible Joys which Eye hath never seen nor ear has heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive 1 Cor. 2.9 For now we shall be cloathed upon with Immortality 2 Cor. 5.2 and possessed of an exceeding weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Now shall all our Faculties be inlarged and filled for we shall see him as he is and know even as we are known 1 John 3.2 Have we shall converse for ever with the Holy Angels with the Pure and Immaculate Spirits of the Just Heb. 12.23 Nay with God Himself and our Blessed Saviour St. John 17. Thier Glories shall be now revealed Their Brightness shall encompass us and the Returns of our Love and Adoration of them shall transport us in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 These then are exceeding great and precious Promises they are the Summum Genus they are Absolute and Perfect they are capable of no Improvement nothing can be added to them that can set a greater Value upon them For are not all things precious according as they approach to the Nature of God from whom all Beauty and Goodness is derived But are not all these Promises Divine Do they not assure us of an Everlasting Union and Communion with Himself John 10.30.17.22 But surely there is a great deal more implied in this than we are able so much as to conceive For why should the Unity of our Souls with God be expressed in Scripture by the Unity of the Head and Members Col. 1.18 of the Vine and Branches St. John 15.1 of the Soul and Body of the Husband and Wife Eph. 5.23 and finally of God and our Blessed Saviour John 17. Or why should it be called a Mystery by St. Paul Eph. 5.32 if there was not something in it that is above our humane Understanding And hence it is that in the Meditation upon those Effects which may proceed from such a perfect Sympathy and an entire Consent of Will with God we run our selves indeed into the most Delightful but Indistinct Imaginations Shall we not then Escape the Corruptions of the World Shall we not forbear or do or suffer any thing that we may Entitle our selves to these exceeding great and precious Promises Are our Vices of Inestimable Value Are our Corruptions so Amiable so Necessary to us that nothing will perswade us to let them go Shall these Unequal Allayed Deceitful Transient Mixt Unsatisfactory Pleasures be put in the Balance with a Crown of Glory 1 Pet. 5.4 an Incorruptible Inheritance an Everlasting Kingdom 1 Pet. 1.4 Shall a Man be Content to lose his Interest in an Eternal Good and the Greatest too that he is capable of Receiving that he may only enjoy the Delusions of a Frenzy or the Pleasures of a Dream for the present Are not such Proceedings against our Common Sense Are they not foolish even to Derision VSE Let us be perswaded then to submit to the Evidence of Reason and sacrifice our Vices to the Conviction of our Consciences How can we enough Adore the Goodness of God who has allured us by exceeding great and precious Promises to the Obedience of those Commands which are themselves our greatest Good Who has made those things our Duty which also fit us for the true Enjoyment of those Rewards which are annexed to our Obedience Finally Since our Religion is our Interest and the Rewards proposed are so transcendent so much greater than we our selves could have desired I hope we are all Resolved to escape the Corruptions of the World that we may partake of the Nature of God We cannot be happy so long as our Dispositions are Contrary to His so long as we are disjoined and separate from our Principle There is nothing here below that is large enough to fill the Capacity of a Man Nothing but God the Inexhaustible Fountain of Good can yield us a steady and a constant Satisfaction But in him there are Infinite Varieties of Indefectible Treasures His Favour will afford us fresh Delights and preserve us in a perfect State Everlasting Happiness To which may God of his Infinite Mercy bring us all for Jesus Christ his Sake the Righteous To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour Glory and Praise now and for evermore Amen FINIS