A Following Holy Life. Kenneth Stevenson
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Название: A Following Holy Life
Автор: Kenneth Stevenson
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Словари
isbn: 9781848253490
isbn:
II.130
Considerations upon the disputation of Jesus with the doctors in the Temple: Jesus ‘removed’ from his own
But we often give God cause to remove and for a while to absent Himself, and His doing of it sometimes upon the just provocations of our demerits makes us at other times with good reason to suspect ourselves even in our best actions. But sometimes we are vain, or remiss, or pride invades us in the darkness and incuriousness of our spirits, and we have a secret sin which God would have us to enquire after; and when we suspect every thing, and condemn ourselves with strictest and most angry sentence, then, it may be, God will with a ray of light break through the cloud; if not, it is nothing the worse for us: for although the visible remonstrance and face of things in all the absences and withdrawings of Jesus be the same, yet if a sin be the cause of it, the withdrawing is a taking away His favour and His love: but if God does it to secure thy piety and to enflame thy desires, or to prevent a crime, then He withdraws a gift only, nothing of His love, and yet the darkness of the spirit and sadness seem equal. It is hard in these cases to discover the cause, as it is nice to judge the condition of the effect; and therefore it is prudent to ascertain our condition by improving our care and our religion, and in all accidents to make no judgment concerning God’s favour by what we feel, but by what we do.
II.162
The history of the baptism and temptation of Jesus: John’s baptism transformed all three Persons of the Trinity
But the holy Jesus, who came (as Himself, in answer to the Baptist’s question, professed) “to fulfil all righteousness,” would receive that rite which His Father had instituted in order to the manifestation of His Son. For although the Baptist had a glimpse of Him by the first irradiations of the Spirit, yet John professed that he therefore came baptizing with water, that “Jesus might be manifested to Israel;” and it was also a sign given to the Baptist himself, that “on whomsoever he saw the Spirit descending and remaining,” He is the person “that baptizeth with the holy Ghost.” And God chose to actuate the sign at the waters of Jordan, in great and religious assemblies convened there at John’s baptism; and therefore Jesus came to be baptized, and by his baptism became know to John, who, as before he gave to Him an indiscriminate testimony, so now he pointed out the person in his sermons and discourses, and by calling Him the Lamb of God, prophesied of His passion, and preached Him to be the world’s Redeemer and the sacrifice for mankind. He was now manifest to Israel: He confirmed the baptism of John; He sanctified the water to become sacramental and ministerial in the remission of sins: He by a real event declared, that to them who should rightly be baptized the kingdom of heaven should certainly be opened: He inserted Himself by that ceremony into the society and participation of holy people, of which communion Himself was head and prince; and He did in a symbol purify human nature, whose stains and guilt He had undertaken.
As soon as John had performed his ministry, and Jesus was baptized, He prayed, and the heavens were opened, and the air clarified by a new and glorious light; “and the holy Ghost, in the manner of a dove, alighted upon” His sacred head, and God the Father gave “a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This was the inauguration and proclamation of the Messias, when He began to be the great prophet of the new covenant. And this was the greatest meeting that ever was upon earth, where the whole cabinet of the mysterious Trinity was opened and shewn, as much as the capacities of our present imperfections will permit: the second Person in the veil of humanity, the third in the shape or with the motion of a dove: but the first kept His primitive state; and as to the Israelites He gave notice by way of caution, “Ye saw no shape, but ye heard a voice,” so now also God the Father gave testimony to His holy Son and appeared, only in a voice without any visible representment.
II.190–1
The significance of the transformation: the Spirit consecrates the waters
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