A47437:495
Christ alone the way to Heaven, or, Jacob's ladder improved containing four sermons lately…
Christ alone the way to Heaven, or, Jacob's ladder improved containing four sermons lately preached on Genesis XXVIII, XII : wherein the doctrine of free-grace is displayed through Jesus Christ : also discovering the nature, office, and ministration of the holy angels : to which is added one sermon on Rom. 8, 1 : with some short reflections on Mr. Samuel Clark's new book entitled Scripture justification / by Benjamin Keach.Christ alone the way to Heaven, or, Jacob's ladder improved containing four sermons lately preach'd on Genesis XXVIII, XII : wherein the doctrine of free-grace is display'd through Jesus Christ : also discovering the nature, office, and ministration of the holy angels : to which is added one sermon on Rom. 8, 1 : with some short reflections on Mr. Samuel Clark's new book intituled Scripture justification / by Benjamin Keach.
London: printed by Benja. Harris, 1698
Title page typeset from the transcription.
CHRIST ALONE THE Way to Heaven: OR, JACOB'S LADDER IMPROVED, &c. › Sermon 4
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.
Thirdly, Let it be considered, (saith he) that as it is God only that is without beginning, so it belongs only to him to be without any possibility of change, or shadow of change; and that the Angels, as Creatures, are reducible to nothing by the same hand that made them, tho not from their own Nature; nor shall they ever cease to be, no more than the Spirits of all men, yet they are in God's hand, tho the best pieces of Nature, and if he withdraw his hand, they all moulder to nothing.
Thirdly, Let it be consider'd, (saith he) that as it is God only that is without beginning, so it belongs only to him to be without any possibility of change, or shadow of change; and that the Angels, as Creatures, are reducable to nothing by the same hand that made them, tho not from their own Nature; nor shall they ever cease to be, no more than the Spirits of all men, yet they are in God's hand, tho the best pieces of Nature, and if he withdraw his hand, they all moulder to nothing.
Angels (saith my Author) may properly be called Incorruptible and Immortal, because they are so by Nature. I speak not, saith he, now of the changeableness of their Wills, but of their Nature and Substance: The Reasons are; First, Because the Angels are not produced out of the power of Matter, or corporal Substance; as the Souls of Beasts, but only by the word of God; and therefore as they have internal principles of Being, so they have none of Dissolution; for there is the same reason of Being, and not Being. Secondly, Angelical Nature, as the Souls also of Men are not compounded of Matter and Form, but are simple Forms and Substances, subsisting by themselves: Now all Corruption, Mortality, and Death, is by the separation of the Form from the Matter; as when the Soul is separated from the Body, which is Corruption, or Death, or when the accidental Form is separated from the Subject, as White from the Wall, or Health from the Man: Now, whatever wants Matter is corruptible, because there is no Composition, and so no Separation. But the Scripture concludes this best in assimilating ⟨p. 95⟩the state of Immortality, in which we shall be like the Angels.