A30241:2712
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 111: That a Gospel-Ministry is to continue to the end of the world. And for what ends▪
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.
I Shall now finish this fruitful Text. The last thing considerable in it, is the instrumental cause of faith, and that is the Apostles Ministry. This faith is wrought by their word. To open this, Consider
I Shall now finish this fruitfull Text. The last thing considerable in it, is the instrumental cause of faith, and that is the Apostles Ministry. This faith is wrought by their word. To open this, Consider
1. That the word which begets faith, is called Gods word, vers. 6. and here the Apostles word in a different sense: It's Gods word originally and efficiently, because revealed by him: It's the Apostles word ministerially, because they are the Ambassadors to publish it. Thus Paul calls it his Gospel, as in other places, it's the Gospel of God, because the Ministers of God are Stewards, to whom is concredited the dispensation of the Word, therefore it is called their word.
1. That the word which begets faith, is called Gods word, vers. 6. and here the Apostles word in a different sense: It's Gods word originally and efficiently, because revealed by him: It's the Apostles word ministerially, because they are the Embassadours to publish it. Thus Paul cals it his Gospel, as in other places, it's the Gospel of God, because the Ministers of God are Stewards, to whom is concredited the dispensation of the Word, therefore it is called their word.
2. Whereas Christ prayeth for all that shall believe even to the end of the world, and yet they are said to believe by the Apostles word, when yet thousands and thousands have believed since the Apostles death and departure; Its necessary, that by the Apostles we do not understand only their persons, but the succeeding Ministry unto them, which is to be perpetual in the Church, all that now or hereafter shall believe, though by the present Ministers that lived many hundred years after the Apostles, yet may be said to obtain faith by the Apostles word, because they sit in the Apostles chair, they deliver the Doctrine, which they delivered, and succeed the Apostles, though not in personal and extraordinaries, yet in ordinaries, in which sense Christ promiseth to be with them to the end of the world. The words thus explained, we may observe,