A49244:316
Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The sum and substance of…Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of…
Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The sum and substance of XV. sermons. Preached by that faithful and painful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London. They being his last sermons. To which is added a funeral sermon, being the very last sermon he ever preached.Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of XV. sermons. Preached by that faithful and painful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London. They being his last sermons. To which is added a funerall sermon, being the very last sermon he ever preached.
London: printed by E.G. for J. Rothwell, 1652
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermon 7: VII. Sermon at Lawrence Jury London. March 30. 1651.
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.
3. Measure not the strength of grace, by the abundance of the means of grace which you enjoy. Alas, Laodicea had a glorious light shining amidst her; she was one of the seven Candlesticks. And because she had such means of grace, she mistook her self, saying,1 I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. But said Christ, Thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.
3. Measure not the strength of grace, by the abundance of the means of grace which you enjoy. Alas, Laodicea had a glorious light shining amidst her; she was one of the seven Candlesticks. And because she had such meanes of grace, she mistook her selfe, saying,1 I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. But said Christ, Theu knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blinde, and naked.
4. Measure not the strength of grace by the strength of your gifts. There is a new disease amongst children called the Rickets, when children grow big in the head, but weak in their limbs: this disease is spiritually upon the souls of many our of Professors; their heads grow in respect of gifts & knowledge, but they do not grow strong to walk in the ways of God; they are like the Moon, increasing ⟨p. 88⟩in light, but not in heat. In the days of the Schoolmen the gifts of men were very high, and yet the power of godliness was at a low ebb in those days; there were in those times many sublime notions, Seraphical speculations, curious distinctions, subtle objections, and elaborate answers to them, grave and weighty sentences; but alas, but a little of the power of grace in the hearts of those men and them they taught.