A30241:2703
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 105: Of Justifying Faith, That it is a fiducial Recumbency on Christ.
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.
Answ. 1 1. That there cannot any doctrine of comfort and grace be preached, but a carnal heart will turn it into the occasion of wickedness; When Paul preached the grace of the Gospel, did not some infer from thence, Let us sin, that grace may abound, and did not others turn the grace of God into wantonness? It's one thing therefore to speak of the proper genius of the doctrine, and another thing, of the abuse of it through mans corruption, If therefore any man living and walking in profaneness do yet comfort and encourage himself, saying, I lay hold on Christ, I believe in Christ· This man as he deceiveth himself, so he doth grossly abuse the grace of God, No, Christ doth not call to men that sin, yet laugh and make merry, but that are weary and loaden, to come unto him, and then he will ease them.
Answ. 1 1. That there cannot any doctrine of comfort and grace be preached, but a carnal heart will turn it into the occasion of wickednesse; When Paul preached the grace of the Gospel, did not some infer from thence, Let us sin, that grace may abound, and did not others turn the grace of God into wantonesse? It's one thing therefore to speak of the proper genius of the doctrine, and another thing, of the abuse of it through mans corruption, If therefore any man living and walking in prophanesse do yet comfort and encourage himself, saying, I lay hold on Christ, I bel•eve in Christ· This man as he deceiveth himself, so he doth grosly abuse the grace of God, No, Christ doth not call to men that sin, yet laugh and make merry, but that are weary and loaden, to come unto him, and then he will ease them.
Answ. 2 But 2. This Doctrine of special and particular Faith doth not encourage to presumption, because it calls not upon sinners abiding and wickedly persevering so, to rest on him, but mourning over and abhorring their sins, Therefore no man is commanded to believe this first, that Christ died for him, but to believe the word of God threatening and discovering the horrid pollution that is upon us, as also the general contagion in every part, the insufficiency and inability to help himself, the necessity of hungering, thirsting, and seeking out after a Saviour, So that in this order and method he must by Faith lay hold on Christ,