A30241:1394
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…
CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, or, Christs prayer before his passion explicated, and both practically and polemically improved by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by Abraham Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1656
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
For we are not to consider of this Attribute merely as a glorious property in God, but to improve it for our good, that we also might be made holy; This glorious Attribute Isa. 6. the Angels of all others do single out, and with great acclamation praise God, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy; Yea, this is the only Attribute we are to imitate, Be ye holy as I am holy, not be omnipotent as I am; Now God is holy several ways.
For we are not to consider of this Attribute meerly as a glorious property in God, but to improve it for our good, that we also might be made holy; This glorious Attribute Isa. 6. the Angels of all others do single out, and with great •cclamation praise God, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy; Yea, this is the only Attribute we are to imitate, Be ye holy as I am holy, not be omnipotent as I am; Now God is holy several waies.
And first, He is essentially holy, his holiness and his nature are not two things as it is in Angels and men; In this sense Christ said,1 None is good but God, God is a pure act, and so whatsoever is in God is God; His holiness therefore is not only in that he worketh all things holily, but his very nature is holy: Hence God is called Jehovah, and I AM, Exod. 3.14. because what he is he is essentially, and therefore seeing his nature is incomprehensible so is his holiness; Seeing we are never able to define what he is, so neither can we what his holiness is, Quicquid de Deo dici potest eo ipso indignum est, quia dici potest, Our dwarfish Nature cannot measure these Pyramids, Our shell cannot contain this Ocean; Though Astronomers by their Instruments guess at the magnitude of the Sun, yet we cannot reach unto the greatness either of Gods Nature or his Attributes.