A49244:506
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 12: XII. Sermon At Lawrence Jury, London. April 20, 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.
1 Caution. Take heed ye be not proud of the greatest measure of gifts you have; there is nothing in the world that a man is so apt to be proud of as his gifts; a man is not so apt to be proud of grace, because he hath a principle to check his pride, but he is apt to be proud of his gifts; a man is not so apt to be proud of outward endowments, as clothing, riches and the like, as he is apt to be proud of his gifts. Expositors that do handle the prophecy of Ezekiel, they say that Ezekiel is called ninety three times (Thou son of man) in that Prophecy; now there is no other Prophet that is mentioned in all the Bible, but only one, which is called The son of man, 1and that is Daniel. Now expositors give this reason why he is called by this title, because he was a Prophet of the greatest gifts, and had the most glorious visions of all the other Prophets. Compare this Prophecy with Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, or all the rest, yet Ezekiels prophecy is a more dark, mysterious, profound book. Now Ezekiel being a Prophet of the greatest gifts; God takes this care to keep his heart low, Thou Son of man, Thou Son of man, and all is to keep his heart low; which doth teach us thus much, that those that have great gifts, they ought to spend a great deal of time to keep their hearts humble and low, because there is a flatuous humour in our nature, whereby we are apt to swell and be puffed up in the sense of our own gift.