A64642:360
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.
First, He humbled himself by taking our nature upon him: He that thought it no robbery to be equal with God, took upon him the form of a man. If it were an abasement for God to look upon heaven the most glorious of his works, how much more to take upon him a clod, or piece of this earth, and unite it to his own sacred person for ever. This was a descending indeed, he descended first that he might ascend. Eph. 4.9. Now that he ascended, what is it, but that he descended first into the lower parts of the earth? That is, he descended into the womb of the Virgin; and it was a great abasement indeed for him thus to descend: Wherefore the Psalmist speaking of the wonderful framing of the Babe in the womb, saith, Psalm, 139.15. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. So that we see God descended into the lowermost parts of the earth, and there was he fashioned. A great humiliation it was for him to be thus enclosed. Thus did he humble himself in taking our nature. Had he taken the form of a King upon him, it h•d been a great humiliation; how much more, when he took on him the form of a servant? He came not in state to be ministered unto, but to minister, as we showed the last day. Nor was he only his Fathers servant, but a servant ⟨p. 372⟩of servants,1 and therein underwent Canaan's curse: A servant of servants shalt thou be. Our Saviour became such a servant. He which was the Author of freedom. John 8.26. If the Son make you free, then are you free indeed. He, I say, who was the Kings son and so the most free, the Author of it to all that enjoy any spiritual freedom, became a servant, that we which were servants might be made free.
First, He humbled himself by taking our nature upon him: He that thought it no robbery to be equal with God, took upon him the form of a man. If it were an abasement for God to look upon heaven the most glorious of his works, how much more to take upon him a clod, or peice of this earth, and unite it to his own sacred person for ever. This was a descending indeed, he descended first that he might ascend.