Report of Commemorative Services with the Sermons and Addresses at the Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885.Episcopal Church. Diocese of Connecticut
Religion
Report of Commemorative Services with the Sermons and Addresses at the Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885.
Episcopal Church. Diocese of Connecticut
Seabury, Samuel, 1729-1796
So it fared with St. Peter, after that vision of the great sheet
coming down from heaven had fully opened to him the universality
of the Church of God. Then his "delusive dream of temporal
deliverance became a real assurance of eternal redemption." Then
his "narrow estimate of the Divine Covenant with his own nation
expanded, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, into the sublime
conception of the 'Israel of God.'" [Footnote: Lee _On Inspiration_,
p. 249 (American edition).]
"Thine heart shall fear and be enlarged." The fear surely is not
that of shivering dread or slavish terror. But it is that subduing
awe which always accompanies great joyfulness, and enters into it
in such a mysterious and perplexing way; even as God says, by
Jeremiah, that when all the nations of the earth shall hear of the
good which He will do unto Israel, "they shall fear and tremble
for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I procure unto
it." So when Jacob, awaking from the sleep in which he learned of
the new Covenant with God through the Incarnation of Christ,
exclaimed: "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the
House of God, and this is the gate of Heaven!" And then, as the
unbounded love and mercy of the Father of all spirits comes to be
understood, the heart is in very deed "enlarged," as St. Paul's
heart was toward his Corinthian children; and it goes along, in
loving, active sympathy with the great purpose of God, "that in
the dispensation of the fulness of times, He might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which
are on earth, even in Him."
Thus as the "Vision of peace, the blessed city Jerusalem" has
dawned upon our sight; as we have watched, its ever-spreading
walls and rising towers; as we have seen it builded up with living
stones, which are human souls redeemed and sanctified; we have
entered with a keener insight into, we have come to comprehend
more truly and more fully, "the length and breadth and depth and
height" of that "manifold wisdom of God" which is made "known by
the Church" even to "the principalities and powers in heavenly
places"; and our hearts have kindled into that constraining love
of Christ, in which we rejoice, with joy unspeakable, to work
together with Him in bringing men to the knowledge of the one way
of salvation, while, in the same deep love, we also endeavor to
"keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account