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Practical Discourses Concerning the Christian Temper; Being Thirty-Eight Sermons Upon the Principal Heads of Practical Religion
Practical Discourses Concerning the Christian Temper Being ThirtyEight Sermons Upon the Principal Heads of Practical Religion Author:John Evans General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1825 Original Publisher: R. Baynes Subjects: Sermons, English Religion / General Religion / Sermons / General Religion / Sermons / Christian Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. Wh... more »en you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: SERMON III. THE CHRISTIAN TEMPER, A DIVINE NATURE. 2 Pet. i. 4. That by these, ye might be partakers of the divine nature. I SHALL look no farther back into the context, than to observe, that the apostle takes notice in the beginning of this verse, that there are given unto us in the gospel, exceeding great and precious promises : Promises very great in themselves ; and such as deserve to be precious and of high esteem with us; because they are quite contrary to what we had reason to expect, and yet perfectly suitable to our wants, and conducive to our happiness. And then, in the words chosen for my present subject, he acquaints us with the design of God, in giving out such excellent promises : " That by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature." Now, I. This may be understood as a privilege : and so the divine nature, will mean God himself. That by these promises, by conferring on us the blessings promised in the gospel, ye might have fellowship with the divine nature. That construction may be put upon the words, y'svrftt 'uat xoituvol ptetu(; and so they will contain a certain truth. It was the gracious purpose of God by the gospel, to raise sinful creatures to a sort of alliance with God, to a federal union with him by Christ, to the dignity of his children, to have his Spirit dwelling in them, and to be allowed fellowship and communion with him. In this view, the intention of God as represented here, would amount to much the same with that assigned...« less