A64642:513
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 that thou mayst understand it the better, know that faith then begins first to work, when thou settest the first step towards the Throne of grace. And this is the hour in which salvation is come unto thy house. None can come to me, saith Christ, except my Father draw him. If thou seest a virtue to come from Christ, and to draw thee as an Adamant, and thou feelest that lodestone working on thee, then begins faith: It makes thee draw near to Christ; whereas before thou wert a stranger: Till then thou art like thy Grandfather Adam, thou runnest away, and thinkest thy self most secure, when thou wast farthest from God; ⟨p. 371⟩but now thou seest no comfort, unless thou draw nigh unto him; now as the Apostle saith, Phil. 2.13. It is he that worketh in us the will and the deed; this must be wrought in us by God.
And that thou mayst understand it the better, know that faith then begins first to work, when thou settest the first step towards the Throne of grace. And this is the houre in which salvation is come unto thy house. None can come to me, saith Christ, except my Father draw him. If thou seest a vertue to come from Christ, and to draw thee as an Adamant, and thou feelest that loadstone working on thee, then begins faith: It makes thee draw near to Christ; whereas before thou wert a stranger: Till then thou art like thy Grandfather Adam, thou runnest away, and thinkest thy self most secure, when thou wast farthest from God; ⟨p. 371⟩but now thou seest no comfort, unlesse thou draw nigh unto him; now as the Apostle saith, Phil. 2.13. It is he that worketh in us the will and the deed; this must be wrought in us by God.
First, a will, then the deed; and then it is not only I would do such a thing, but I do it: God works not only the will of coming, but the deed of coming; and all his acts are acts of faith, and have a promise; God makes no promise till we be in Christ; till we have faith, we are no heirs of the promise; when a man sets his face towards Jerusalem, and begins to set himself to go to Christ, all he doth then hath the promise; not a tear now that he sheds but is precious, God puts it into his bottle; not a cup of cold water that now he gives but shall have a great reward; this is a blessed thing when every thing we do hath a promise annexed to it, when every step we step hath a promise made to it. Now then the will is the first thing that is wrought in us; this is that which makes the act of faith, that is, I have a will, a resolution to do this: And the Apostle makes it more than the very deed it self,