Sunday, March 20, 2011

William Beveridge

In preparing for a sermon on Hebrews 10:19-25, I came across a sermon by William Beveridge. William Beveridge(1637–1708) was an English Bishop of St Asaph. He was born at Barrow, near Leicester, and baptized there February 21, 1637. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge,[1] and was rector of Ealing, 1661–72, and of St. Peter's, Cornhill, London, 1672–1704, when he became bishop. He died in London March 5, 1708. In his day he was styled "the great reviver and restorer of primitive piety" because in his sermons and other writings he dwelt on the Church of the early centuries.

Here is an excerpt from his introduction to Sermon 83:

THAT most Glorious and Almighty Being Which we worship and call God, although He be not only infinitely above us, but of a nature quite contrary to ours ; His being purity, holiness, perfection itself; ours weak, corrupt, and sinful: yet so great is His love to mankind, that He Himself hath found out a way whereby we may come so near to Him, as to see and enjoy Him, which is so high a mystery that human reason, in its highest perfection, could never have reached it ; neither could we ever have thought it possible, or so much as thought of it at all, if God Himself had not revealed it to us in His Holy Word ...

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