A64642:107
Eighteen sermons preached in Oxford 1640 of conversion, unto God. Of redemption, & justification,…
Eighteen sermons preached in Oxford 1640 of conversion, unto God. Of redemption, & justification, by Christ. By the Right Reverend James Usher, late Arch-bishop of Armagh in Ireland. Published by Jos: Crab. Will: Ball. Tho: Lye. ministers of the Gospel, who writ them from his mouth, and compared their copies together. With a preface concerning the life of the pious author, by the Reverend Stanley Gower, sometime chaplain to the said bishop.Eighteen sermons preached in Oxford 1640 of conversion, unto God. Of redemption, & justification, by Christ. By the Right Reverend James Usher, late Arch-bishop of Armagh in Ireland. Published by Jos: Crabb. Will: Ball. Tho: Lye. ministers of the Gospel, who writ them from his mouth, and compared their copies together. With a preface concerning the life of the pious author, by the Reverend Stanly Gower, sometime chaplain to the said bishop.
London: printed by S. Griffin for Will, 1660
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. But add hereto the Argument in the Text:1 To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart; but repent while it is called to day. Showing that if we pass this day, we shall be harder and harder. Wherefore, saith the Apostle, Exhort every one another daily while it is called to day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, Heb. 3.13. As if he had said, if thy heart be hard ⟨p. 28⟩to day, it will be harder to morrow. Custom in sin hardens the heart, and takes away the sense of it. Wherefore, saith the Apostle, I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness, unto holiness, Rom. 6.19. So that we see if a man once give himself up unto sin, he will not be satisfied therewith, but will give himself up to iniquity unto iniquity. What's the meaning of that? It's as if he had said if we give our selves up to iniquity, we will not rest there, but we'll add iniquity unto iniquity, sin unto sin: we will be brought to such a custom in evil, as that it will be easier for a blackmoor to change his skin, and a leopard his spots, then for those that have been accustomed to do evil, to learn to do well, Jer. 13. It will be to as much purpose to wash an Ethiopian, as to go to put off that ill custom, and shake off that second nature. Sin is a hammer, and sin is a nail too. Every sin strikes the former sin home to the head, that whereas before it might easily have been drawn out, it roots it in so fast, as that it can very hardly be plucked out. Mark how the Apostl• describes this cursed nature of sin: Having eyes full of Adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, a heart they have exercised with covetous practises, 2 Pet. 2.14. What makes a man prompt in any thing but exercise? When a man is exercised in sin, see the event of it: it brings him to that vicious habit, as that at length he cannot cease from sin. If a