A64642:186
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.
and if he become a slave, he cannot beget a free-man. When our Saviour tells the Jews of being free-men: We were never bond-men, say they, though it be false; for even Cicero himself could tell a Jew that he was a slave, genus hominum ad servitium natum, although they had a good opinion of themselves: But our Saviour saith, you are bond-m•n unto sin and Satan. For till the Son make you free, you are all bond-men: but when he makes you free, then are you free indeed. So that we see our condition here set down.
and if he become a slave, he cannot beget a free-man. When our Saviour tells the Jewes of being free-men: We were never bond-men, say they, though it be false; for even Cicero himself could tell a Jew that he was a slave, genus hominum ad servitium natum, although they had a good opinion of themselves: But our Saviour saith, you are bond-m•n unto sin and Satan. For till the Son make you free, you are all bond-men: but when he makes you free, then are you free indeed. So that we see our condition here set down.
1. We are dead in trespasses and sins; that is, there is an indisposition in us to all good works. A dead man cannot walk, or speak, or do any act of a living man; so these cannot do the actions of men that are quickened and enlivened, they cannot pray with the spirit, they cannot love God, &c. ⟨p. 68⟩they cannot do those things that shall be done hereafter in heaven. There's not one good duty which this natural man can do. If it should be said unto him, Think but one good thought, and for it thou shalt go to heaven, he could not think it. Till God raise him from the sink of sin, as he did Lazarus from the grave, he cannot do any thing that is well-pleasing unto God. He may do the works of a moral man, but to do the works of a man quickened and enlightened, it's beyond his power. For if he could do so, he must then have some reward from God; for however we deny the merit of good works, yet we deny not the reward of good works to a man that is in Christ. There's no proportionable merit in a cup of cold water and the Kingdom of heaven, yet he that gives a cup of cold water to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple, shall not lose his reward. Here then is the point. The best thing that a natural man doth,