PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Complete Works of Thomas Manton — Volume 20
Thomas Manton · 329,200 words · 330 reading sections
Section 61
VER. 13, 14.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. 93 scions to our own infirmities more than we can be to others. We have a sense of our own sins, which being compared with that remote view which we have of the sins of others, will make us more condemn our- selves than them. We know our own hearts ; we know not another's. W…
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Doct. That the prize of eternal glory is set before those whom God hath effectually called in Christ. 1. There is a twofold calling, outward and inward. [1.] Outward and external, when a man is by the word invited to the communion of Christ and all his benefits : so ' Many are called but few are chosen,' Mat. xxii. 1…
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96 SEKMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. [SeR. IX. will I seek.' God no sooner calleth but they hear ; and what God biddeth theni do they do, and forsake they forsake. To many God ■stretcheth out his hands in vain ; God calleth them to purity, but oh, the uncleanness of heart and life ! God looketh for grapes, but behold wild…
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2. To show whether the calling hath had its effect upon you. Doth it make you more heavenly ? They that obey this call, their hearts are more heavenly. It is heaven they seek : Col. iii. 1, 2, ' If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which ars above, where Christ vol. xx. G 98 ' SERMONS UPON PHILTPPIANS ITT. […
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1. The formal and explicit intention is by express thoughts of the world to come, when the mind and heart is in heaven. Now these thoughts should be frequent ; for ' where the treasure is, the heart will be also,' Mat. vi. 21. Can you travel one whole day to such an end, and never think of the place you are going unto …
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VER. 14.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. 101 to hell ? The reason is, because they have not resolvedly fixed and determined their choice, or do not regard their end. It would cut off and prevent impertinences if you be true to your end and great scope. As when you are melting away your precious time in ease, and idlene…
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3. For this end we are sanctified or effectually called. Christ's blessings are not bounded in time, but he hath ' blessed us with spi- ritual blessings in heavenly places,' Eph. i. 3. They are of a heavenly rise and nature, and of a heavenly tendency ; there they began, and there they are consummated. Use 2. To persu…
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[2.] The enjoyments of this world. They are valuable upon a natural account, but we must consider them with respect to our end. Are they helps or hindrances to heaven ? If hindrances, it is the greatest misery that can befall us. It is a great part of God's curse to con- demn some men to worldly felicity: Jer. xvii. 13…
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[1.] Because otherwise it is not our scope ; for an end is not thoroughly intended unless we use the means to obtain it. True wisdom lieth in the intention of a right end, the choice of apt means, and a dexterous and ready prosecution; the whole fabric falleth if one be wanting. If we have good aims, and do not choose …
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The third thing in the text is his earnest pursuit, showed in his dili- gence and perseverance. 1. His diligence. It was earnestly sought after, as well as intended; VER. 14.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. 107 implied in the words e7re/cT€iv6/jLevo<; and Suokq), reaching forth and pressing towards ; which imply vehe…
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4. There was an agonotheies. This prize is given by a judge: 2 Tim. iv. 8, ' Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.' Our claim must be justified before his tribunal. 5. No obtaining the crown without running: Heb. xii. 1, 'Let us run…
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110 SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. [SeR. XII. 2. At the second-hand, and in the rebound, as it was transmitted to them by the practice of others, ' And mark them that walk so, as ye- have us for an ensample.' 1. For the first consideration, as his own practice was a pattern to them of sincere love to Christ. Sv/MfMifx…
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[1.] Because they are so many and various, and suited to persons of all degrees and ranks of men, and for all christian ends. In the word of God we have many examples on record fit for all persons to imitate. The prince in Josiah and Hezekiah ; the counsellor in Hushai ; the rich man in Abraham ; the poor in the Shunam…
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[1.] That they are in our eye. It is a saying of Seneca, that men live non ad rationem sed ad similitudinem, not by reason so much as custom and conformity to the practice of others ; as beasts follow the drove, and consider not qua eundum.est, sed quaitur not how all should walk, VER. 17.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS II…
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III. How far we must imitate them. 1. Not in evil things ; for the best have their blemishes, and the saints are not mensura mensurans, the rule measuring, but mensura mensurata, the copy, the instance, not the standard. Therefore the apostle saith, 1 Cor. xi. 1, ' Be ye followers of me, as also I am of Christ.' No fa…
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3. Because they show us the way to heaven more clearly and com- pendiously. Lonrjum iter per prcecepta, brieve per exempla — The way is long by precepts, but short by examples. Men can sooner under- stand an example than they can understand a rule. We see how religion is to be acted and carried on. The ignorant underst…
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[3.] How severe God is upon his scandalous children. Though he may pardon their faults as to eternal punishment, yet they smart for it in the world : 1 Sam. xii. 14, ' Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme.' That sin cost David dear, because he had made others judge i…
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VER. 17.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. 119 Use 2. To show us how cautious we should be that we be not in- fected by bad examples. Example is of great force either way. Here I shall show you what examples are most forcible to draw us from God and goodness. - 1. The examples of those who are near to us in kindred ; a…
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SEEMON XIII. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. — Phil. iii. 18. Here is the reason given why they should be cautious whose example they followed, because there were crept into the church a licentious sort of christians, who frame…
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[4 1 They have a clearer apprehension of the mischievous effects of sin, see more danger in it than the deluded world do: Jer. xiii. 17, 'If ye will not hear, my soul shall weep in secret places.' Faith hath a great sagacity and foresight in it. As to things hoped, it is a substance ; so it is the evidence of things no…
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2. That friendship and enmity to Christ is not interpreted so much by external profession as by the constitution of our hearts, and the course of our conversations. Christ never respected pure profession, 124 SERMONS UPON PHILTPPIANS III. [SeR. XIII..' where men have the hearts of infidels and pagans or the lives of …
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126 SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. [SeR. XII. Christ, those who seek to check their worldly lusts, or they who, since Christ's religion came in fashion, do rest in an outward pageautry aud seeming devotion to the cross? [4.] It is the worldly spirit that distinguisheth the hypocrites from the sincere in the true churc…
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(2.) Suffering for Christ. What is it that maketh men so tender of suffering but love of the world ? If men were crucified to the world, it would be more easy ; for we can readily part with things that we do much value and esteem. These are but small matters in com- parison of what Christ hath promised you and purchase…
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[3.] Of a glorious issue ; for Christ escaped out of death, and entered into glory, which he promised us, and so still by his example calleth us off from the world to heaven : Heb. xii. 1, 2, ' Let us run with pa- tience the race which is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith ; who, for …
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2. Else you feel not the true virtue of Christ's cross. And how will you glory in it when you hear of such a mighty Christ, and feel nothing ? Gal. vi. 14, ' God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ/ Therefore consider, What benefit have I found by Christ ? I profess to believe the doctrine of the cr…
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[2.] As to their practice, they principally respected their profit and ease, and the commodities of the flesh ; so that if their doctrine had been true, their hearts were naught ; as if a man should intrude into the ministry, and preach truth, but for worldly ends, not to work in the Lord's vineyard, but to feed on the…
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3. The last thing is their punishment, ' Whose end is destruction.' Sinners gain little by their sin at last. We swallow the bait, but do not mind the hook : ' Whose end is destruction.' This is the end, not intended by them, but appointed by God as the wages of the carnal life. Finis operis, the end of the work ; thou…
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[1.] What is your chief end and scope ? The chief end and scope must be God and heaven : 2 Cor. iv. 18, afco7rodvTe<;, ' While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen : for the things which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal ; ' and Phil. iii. 14…
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VER. 19.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. 137 these distempers, and settling his soul to his constant bent, work, and joy. It is not a frame of heart that he can rest in ; it is his trouble, and in time he gets above the distemper. II. The aggravations of this sin ; and — 1. The first is, ' Whose god is their belly.' …
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[2.] This belly is made a god ; that is, interpretatively, a man's god, which is his chief good and the last end of all his actions, and upon which all his care, thoughts, and endeavours run most. Thus do the earthly-minded upon the world and the belly, therefore here it is said, ' Their belly is their god ; ' and else…
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2. The second aggravation, ' They glory in their shame,' that is, in their riches and worldly conveniences. [1.] That which a man prizeth most he will glory in. Now for christians to glory in a life of pomp and ease is to glory in their shame. What a man prizeth most, he will glory in it, boast of it, be it wealth or …
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[5.] The carnal and unsanctified rejoice in earthly things, as pleasing their flesh; and so do the godly also, as far as flesh remaineth in them. But this is our weakness, and so really our disgrace. High thoughts of worldly pomp and greatness show how little we have of a christian spirit. A christian should affect a m…
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III. The punishment. The carnal life endeth in everlasting de- struction : ' Their end is destruction.' 1. It is good to look to the end of things. It maketh one wise : Dent xxxii. 29, ' Ob, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end ! ' Lam. i. 9, ' She remembereth not h…
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2. Let not this be your great work and business : Mat. vi. 24, ' No man can serve two masters : for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon ; ' Prov. xxiii. 4, ' Labour not to be rich ; ' that is, so as to jostle out other b…
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7. Be willing to resign them up to Christ, when the enjoyment of them is inconsistent with your fidelity to him. Be not unwilling to let go all your earthly conveniences, at least to hazard them for Christ : Luke xiv. 33, ' Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.' We esteem…
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Here is the opposite carriage of sound believers, and the reason of it. The false christians minded earthly things, and the true christians had their conversation in heaven. The people of God and the people of the world are of divers, dispositions ; the one are under the power and influence of the wisdom of the flesh, …
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VER. 20.] SERMONS UPON PHIL1PPIANS III. 149 hath loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it.' Peace of conscience : Rom. v. 1, ' Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.' The use of ordinances, which may put us in mind, and quicken us to seek after the country to which we do belong. …
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(2 ) We must look for this blessed estate by hope, which is acted by serious and heart-warming thoughts. A believer is not already in heaven, but his better part is there ; his heart and mind are there, and he expects one day to be there glorified : Titus ii. 13, ' Looki ng for the blessed hope ; ' Jude 21, ' Looking f…
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[2.] In the constant use of the means whereby we may attain it. There is no coming to the end of the journey but by the way, nor obtaining the happiness but by the means. The great difficulty of a christian lieth not so much in a respect to the end as to the means. There is some difficulty about the end, to convince me…
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[3.] The course of our living must suit with the properties of this happy estate. (1.) It is a great happiness ; (2.) It is a pure happi- ness ; (3.) A happiness that lieth in heaven. (1.) It is a great happiness, and therefore must not be slightly sought after. No slight thing will become God and heaven ; all zeal an…
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2. They are new made or born again, and the tendency of the life of grace is to God and heaven : 2 Peter i. 4, ' Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruptions that are in the world through lust.' It is the divine…
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2. The more heavenly you are in your lives, your right is the more evident, and you are more ready for possession. You are in the next meetness : Col. i. 12, ' Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.' A man reconciled to God and sanctified is in a remote meetness; but the heaven…
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2. Powerfully to administer the mediatorial kingdom. [1.] For the comfort of the elect, and to see the fruits of his purchase accomplished to them : Eph. iv. 10, ' The same also that ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things ; ' that is, supply his people with a large and plentiful measure of the g…
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2. The apostle mentioneth this time, because till then our own salvation is not perfect nor complete for body and soul. The whole church is not perfected and brought together. Then we shall have many privi- leges that we had not before. [1.] It is a day of manifestation : Rom. viii. 19, ' For the earnest expectation o…
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Third point. That to true christians he will come in the quality of a saviour ; not as a rigorous judge to condemn us, but as a saviour to free us from all misery. 1. It showeth the way of our getting to heaven. It is in a way of salvation, which is the recovery of a thing or person lost ; so Christ came to seek and t…
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[1.] Faith is the ground of this looking ; because we believe the pro- mise, therefore we determine that ' he that shall come will come, and will not tarry,' Heb. x. 37. Faith seeth the certainty of Christ's day afar off, for it is ' the evidence of things not seen ; ' as Rebecca espied Isaac at a great distance. It lo…
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2. Because he cometh from thence to bring us thither. His business at his second coming is to translate us into that heavenly city : John xiv. 3, ' I will come again, and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.' Therefore now we should behave ourselves as candidates of eternity. His whole design i…
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Use 1. To press you to look for Christ from heaven as a saviour. To this end — 1. Seek reconciliation, and be at peace with God: 2 Peter iii. 14, 1 Wherefore, seeing we look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace.' Others tremble at the mention of his coming; the guilt of sin maketh this d…
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SERMON XVII. Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. — Phil. iii. 21. In the context the apostle showeth the different course of living observed by the true and false christians, ' They mi…
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Doct. That Jesus Christ at his coming will so change these vile bodies of ours that they shall become glorious bodies, and fit to be placed in the heavenly city. In discussing this point — 1. I shall consider the state of the body as it is now. 2. What our bodies shall be at Christ's coming. 3. I shall prove that t…
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8. More vile after death. When the soul, the inhabitant, is gone, when it becometh a breathless trunk, it must be removed out of sight ; it must be buried in some little pit and hole of the earth, where it may be hidden, to keep others from being offended or infected with its rottenness, stench, and putrefaction : …
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III. That these same vile bodies shall be changed into glorious bodies. 1. I prove it from the nature of the resurrection. It will not be a resurrection unless that which fell rise again, and that which was dead be revived. Therefore the same bodies which were buried in the grave shall be raised up. If the same body w…
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IV. What grounds there are to facilitate our belief and hope of the resurrection. 1. It is a work of omnipotency. We are apt to say, How can it be that when our bodies are turned into dust, and that dust mingled with other dust, and hath undergone many transmutations, that every one should have his own body and flesh …
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5. The honour which is put upon the bodies of the saints. [1.] They are members of Christ: 1 Cor. vi. 15, 'Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid.' The members of Christ shall not remain in death, but certainly…
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3. Do not spare the body to do God service. A believer, if he look backward or forward, upward or downward, seeth no reason to spare the body. Backward, what pains did Christ endure in his body? his face spit upon, his hands and feet nailed to the cross, his head crowned with thorns ; in his lifetime neglected : ' he b…
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4. If you look, and long, and prepare for a better estate : 2 Cor. v. 1, 2, ' For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens: for in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from …
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To make this more clear, let us examine the several titles Christ hath to a believer. 1. By creation. So Christ hath a right to us, together with the Father and Spirit. He made the world : Heb. i. 2, ' Hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the …
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[3.] Besides the right and intention of the Creator there is an obli- gation left upon the creature to love and serve him that created us, namely, as he showed more love to us than he did to any other creatures except the angels. He gave being to other things, to man his image. N<>w the whole use of an image and pictur…
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[2.] Consider the price that was paid for us. The apostle Peter gives us an account of that : 1 Peter i. 18, 19, 'We were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.' The great- ness of the price doth argue his full prop…
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Use 1. To persuade us to make it our business to honour Christ, to advance him. It doth not only concern public persons, such as Paul was, but every private christian. To this purpose I shall — (1.) Give you directions ; (2.) Motives. 1. You must close with him by faith, and use him to the end for which God hath appo…
921 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1870); OCR text from Internet Archive. OCR may contain scanning/transcription errors. Verify quotations against page images when precision matters.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.