A64642:438
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.
1. Its presented Sub ratione veri; After you had heard the Word of Truth; and there comes in the Understanding.
2. Then Sub ratione boni, as a good word, that so we should lay hold on it, and here comes in the Will. For the Will, we say, challenges that which is good for its Object: Now the Gospel of salvation is a good Word, its glad tidings worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And now as the Word is presented as a good Word, so must my Act of faith be answerable unto it. See in Heb. 11.13. The act of faith answering hereto, These all died in faith, not having received the Promises. What did their faith to them? It made them see the Promises a far off, and they were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth. So that by comparing place with place, it appears that first this Gospel was presented as the Word of Truth, they were persuaded of it. It is the first Act of Faith, to persuade men of the truth of the Word: and then as it is a good word, ⟨p. 423⟩they embraced it: these are the two arms of faith: as true, it persuades me, as good, I embrace it. We must not now be too curious in bringing in Philosophical Disputes, whether one Virtue may proceed from two faculties; whether Faith may proceed from the Understanding and the Will. The truth is, these things are not yet agreed upon; and shall we trouble our selves with things not yet decided in the schools, as, whether the practical Understanding and the Will be distinct faculties or no? The Word of God requires that I should believe with my whole heart. Act. 8.37. As Philip told the Eunuch, if thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest: If with the heart: but with what faculties may you say? Why, I tell thee, believe with thy whole heart: and what! shall I piece and divide the heart, when the whole is required? Now to come to these two: The Word is presented, 1. As a true Word. 2. Then as a good Word; a word like Gospel, like salvation.