A64642:242
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.
Our Saviour shows the filthiness of the heart by that which proceeds out of the mouth, Mat. 15.18. Those things which proceed out of the mouth, ⟨p. 102⟩come from the heart. And v. 19. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, &c. Observe. Of all evils we account evil thoughts the least. This we think strange, what, thoughts defile a man? what, so light a matter as a thought? Can they make any impression? Yes, and defile a man too, leaving such a spot behind them, which nothing but the hot blood of Christ can wash away. So many evil thoughts, so many blasphemies, so many filthy things come from the heart, every one being a new defilement and pollution, that a man is made so nasty by it and filthy, that he cannot believe that it is so bad with him as indeed it is. The Apostle having shown the Corinthians their former life, and exhorted them against it, 1 Cor. 6. goes on cap. 7. v. 1. Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Mark then, there is a double filthiness, a filthiness of the flesh, and a filthiness of the spirit. The filthiness of the flesh, that every one acknowledgeth to be filthy carnality, Fornication, and Adultery, &c. These bestial lusts every one knows to be unclean. But then there is a filth of the Spirit too, and such are evil thoughts. They are the filth of the Spirit. Corruptio optimi est pessima. The corruption which cleaves to the best thing is worst. The soul is the Best thing, the most noble thing; the filthiness which cleaves to it therefore must needs be the greatest. Fleshly filthiness, as Adultery, is filthy; but contemplative Adultery, to dwell thereon, is worse: however such a man may be pure from the filth of the flesh, yet ⟨p. 103⟩if he delight himself in filthy thoughts, his spirit is abominable in the sight of God: there is a stain by every one of thy impure thoughts left behind. However an actual sin be far greater then the sin of a thought, yet if that be but once committed, and these are frequently in thee; if thou alway lie tumbling in the suds of thy filthy thoughts, thy continuing therein makes thy sin more abominable then Davids outward act which he but once committed. So that we see there is a filthiness of the spirit as well as the flesh. In