A64642:248
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. And the third woe is that which immediately follows Gods leaving of us. When we have polluted our selves with sin, and God by reason thereof abhors us, and turns from us, then are there others ready presently to take up the room; so soon as God departs, the Devil steps in and becomes thy God. He was thy God by Creation, this by usurpation: He was thy Father that would have given thee every good thing; but now thou art fatherless, or rather worse, thou hast the Devil for thy Father, and better is it to ⟨p. 107⟩to be without one. When the Devil is thy Father his works thou must do. When the Spirit of God departed from Saul, presently the evil Spirit entered into him, 1 Sam. 16.14. If the good Spirit be gone out, the evil Spirit soon comes in: he comes and takes possession, and is therefore called The God of this world: And while we are in that state, we walk after the course of him that worketh in the children of disobedience. We would account it a terrible thing, for our selves, or any of our children, to be possessed of a Devil: But what it is to be possessed of this Devil thou knowest not. It's not half so bad to have a Legion possess thy body, as to have but one to possess thy soul. He becomes thy God, and thou must do his work; he will tyrannize over thee. What a fearful thing therefore is this, that as soon as God departs from us, and forsakes us, and we him, that the Devil should presently come in his room, and take up the heart? Mark that place in Eph. 2.2. Where in times past ye walked according to the course of the world, according &c. As soon as God leaves a man, what a fearful company assail him? They all concur together, the world, the flesh, and the Devil: These take Gods place.
3. And the third woe is that which immediatly follows Gods leaving of us. When we have polluted our selves with sin, and God by reason thereof abhors us, and turns from us, then are there others ready presently to take up the room; so soon as God departs, the Devil steps in and becomes thy God. He was thy God by Creation, this by usurpation: He was thy Father that would have given thee every good thing; but now thou art fatherlesse, or rather worse, thou hast the Devil for thy Father, and better is it to ⟨p. 107⟩