A95855:26
The way to true happiness, or, the way to heaven opened. In a sermon…The way to true happinesse, or, the way to heaven open'd. In a sermon…
The way to true happiness, or, the way to heaven opened. In a sermon before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, Jan. 28. 1654/5 / By Ralph Venning.The way to true happinesse, or, the way to heaven open'd. In a sermon before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, Jan. 28. 1654/5 / By Ralph Venning.
London: printed by T.R. and E.M. for John Rothwel, 1655
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.
Accordingly Christ hath acquitted himself like a faithful Steward; he hath finished the work which his Father gave him to do; He hath done and suffered all that was commanded him for the good of men; so that he is pure from the blood of all men, having declared unto them the whole counsel of God, and chalked out the way wherein they are to walk, that they may be happy. The sum whereof he hath given us in the text, and that is the doing of his Fathers Will.
Accordingly Christ hath acquitted himself like a faithful Steward; he hath finished the work which his Father gave him to do; He hath done and suffered all that was commanded him for the good of men; so that he is pure from the blood of all men, having declared unto them the whole counsel of God, and chalked out the way wherein they are to walk, that they may be happy. The summe whereof he hath given us in the text, and that is the doing of his Fathers Will.
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven.
Christ Jesus, having (in the thirteenth verse,) exhorted them to enter in (that is, as Luke expounds it, chap. 13. verse 24. to strive to enter in) at the strait gate, with forcible arguments to provoke thereunto; he doth in the fifteenth verse advise them to beware of false Prophets, that they might not be misled and miscarry in a business of so great importance to them: and therefore tells them, verse 16. (which is again repeated, verse 20.) how they may know them; viz. by their fruits; by their works, not by their words: happily they may speak as others, so that they may not be known by their words, but, saith he, by their fruits ye shall know them. Having done this, he lays down this position in the text, as of greatest concernment, not only to them, but to all: Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, &c.