A86531:424
The saints dignity and duty· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardness. /…The saints dignitie and dutie· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardnesse. /…
The saints dignity and duty· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardness. / Delivered in several sermons: by that reverend divine, Thomas Hooker, late preacher in New-England.The saints dignitie and dutie· Together with the danger of ignorance and hardnesse. / Delivered in severall sermons: by that reverend divine, Thomas Hooker, late preacher in New-England.
London: printed by G.D. for Francis Eglesfield, 1651
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Come we now in the first place to speak of the negative part, in which the Spirit of God is pleased to exclude all outward privileges and prerogatives, and to say thus, Abraham is the father of circumcision, to them who are not of the circumcision only; that is, if they enjoy only outward privileges, they are not the children of Abraham. The point we learn hence is thus much;
Come we now in the first place to speak of the negative part, in which the Spirit of God is pleased to exclude all outward priviledges and prerogatives, and to say thus, Abraham is the father of circumcision, to them who are not of the circumcision onely; that is, if they injoy onely outward priviledges, they are not the children of Abraham. The point we learn hence is thus much;
That all outward privileges, as the hearing of the Word, the partaking of the Sacraments, and the like, are not able to make a man a sound Saint of God.
That all outward priviledges, as the hearing of the Word, the partaking of the Sacraments, and the like, are not able to make a man a sound Saint of God.
The point is clear in the Text, That if a man had circumcision, that is, if he had all those preferments that God vouchsafeth to a people in the face and bosom of his Church, this would not do him any good at all, he hath no title to the promises because of these, if he rest in them: Abraham is not the father of those that are circumcised only: So that I say again, all outward privileges are not able to make a man a true Saint of God. Our Saviour Christ, speaking of Capernaum, saith, And thou Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell; for if the mighty works which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, &c.