A49244:535
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 13: XIII. 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. Thou hast not so much grace and perfection as once thou hadst: Once man was beautified and bespangled with many glorious ⟨p. 164⟩perfections before the fall, it might have been said of man, that he was perfect as his heavenly father was perfect, for God made man upright, that is, perfect, nothing was wanting then to make man both an happy and holy creature; but alas, the image of God in us is now obliterated and defaced.
2. He that hath most grace,1 hath not so much as he shall have in heaven. Not that I am perfect already, but I forget those things that are behind, and I press forward unto those things that are before, yea I press (saith the Apostle) toward the mark of the price of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus. We read under the law of several things that were to be a cubit and half high and broad,2 it being an imperfect measure,3 it was to note, that no man in this life hath an exactness and perfection, the uttermost that is attainable by us in this life, is but imperfect. In this life there is a plus ultra, 4something still to be attained in religion,5 but in heaven men shall be perfect. We shall in heaven be like to Jesus Christ, whom though we now see but darkly and in a glass, then we shall see him as he is.
2. He that hath most grace,1 hath not so much as he shall have in heaven. Not that I am perfect already, but I forget those things that are behind, and I presse forward unto those things that are before, yea I presse (saith the Apostle) toward the mark of the price of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus. We read under the law of severall things that were to be a cubit and half high and broad,