A30241:1493
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.
Sermon 57: Reasons proving the Necessity of Gods preserving his Children in Grace, That God keeps…
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.
5. Faith is a means to preserve us, because by that the devil who doth most solicit our undoing is repelled; No grace but Faith doth so immediately and formally repel him, Whom resist steadfast in the Faith, 1 Pet. 5 9. And by Faith we overcome the wicked one, for Faith is not strong with its own strength, and therefore it must needs overcome the devil, as David overcame Goliath, not by his own valour but in the Name of the Lord.
5. Faith is a means to preserve us, because by that the devil who doth most sollicite our undoing is repelled; No grace but Faith doth so immediately and formally repell him, Whom resist stedfast in the Faith, 1 Pet. 5 9. And by Faith we overcome the wicked one, for Faith is not strong with its own strength, and therefore it must needs overcome the devil, as David overcame Goliah, not by his own valour but in the Name of the Lord.
6. Faith is therefore helpful to our preservation because in some sense it stirreth up and acts all other graces; What the Papists say of Charity that it is the assistant form of all other graces, we may say of Faith, That it doth direct, act, and stir up all other graces to work; Therefore faith is said to work by love, Gal. 5.6. Thus it works by patience, it works by repentance; Therefore Heb. 11. all the glorious achievements that those Worthies wrought are attributed to Faith: Thus we see how many several ways faith helpeth to keep us.
6. Faith is therefore helpfull to our preservation because in some sence it stirreth up and acts all other graces; What the Papists say of Charity that it is the assistant form of all other graces, we may say of Faith, That it doth direct, act, and stir up all other graces to work; Therefore faith is said to work by love,