A96098:48
The crown of righteousness. Set forth in a sermon preached at Stephens Walbrook, May…
The crown of righteousness. Set forth in a sermon preached at Stephens Walbrook, May 1. 1656. At the funeral of Thomas Hodges Esquire. / By Thomas Watson, minister of Stephens Walbrook, in the city of London.The crown of righteousness. Set forth in a sermon preached at Stephens Walbrook, May 1. 1656. At the funeral of Thomas Hodges Esquire. / By Thomas Watson, minister of Stephens Walbrook, in the citie of London.
London: printed for Joseph Crawford, 1656
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.
2. There is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness] aQuest. Why a Crown of Righteousness? it is a Crown of mercy; ba Crown that free grace bestows; Why then is it called Corona justitiae, a Crown of righteousness? Answ. 1. Negatively; not that we can by3 our righteousness merit this Crown. Bellarmine builds his Doctrine of Merit on this Text; Aquinas and Bonaventure say, that we merit this Crown ex condigno, by way of condignitie. But the whole current of our Orthodox Divines runs another way. cAnd the Apostle makes a clear distinction between a reward bestowed by Merit, and by Grace; Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sin is death, but the gift dof God eis eternal life. Had the reward been by merit, the Apostle should have said, the wages of God is eternal life. fAlas! how can we merit a Crown? before we merit we must satisfy, but we have nothing to satisfy. How can finite Obedience satisfy infinite Justice? Besides, what equality is there between our service, and the reward? What proportion between the shedding of a Tear, and a Crown? So that we cannot by our righteousness merit this Crowng.
2. There is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness] aQuest. Why a Crown of Righteousnesse? it is a Crown of mercie; ba Crown that free grace bestows; Why then is it called Corona justitiae, a Crown of righteousness? Answ. 1. Negatively; not that we can by