A09443:942
A godly and learned exposition or commentary upon the three first chapters of the…A godly and learned exposition or commentarie vpon the three first chapters of the…
A godly and learned exposition or commentary upon the three first chapters of the Revelation. Preached in Cambridge by that reverend and judicious divine, master William Perkins, Ann. Dom. 1595. First published for the benefit of Gods Church, by Robert Hill, Bachelor of DivinityA godly and learned exposition or commentarie vpon the three first chapters of the Reuelation. Preached in Cambridge by that reuerend and judicious diuine, maister William Perkins, Ann. Dom. 1595. First published for the benefit of Gods Church, by Robert Hill, Bachelor of Diuinitie
London: printed by Adam Islip for Cuthbert Burbie, 1606
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
By this doctrine,1 touching the keys of David given to Christ, and the power of the keys in the church derived thence, we may learn sundry things. First, that Christ, who hath the keys of David to open and shut, doth not open to all, but to some only. The reason hereof is this: Adam being created in integrity, was in the favour of God: but by his sin he lost the favour of God, & so barred himself both out of the earthly and heavenly paradise: and all his posterity by the same sin, and by their own actual sins are likewise debarred: for bsin is a partition wall between us and God: and a ccloud between our prayers and God himself; as Jeremiah speaketh: so that sin is the cause of this exclusion: and so many sins as a man committeth, so many bolts and bars he maketh to exclude himself from the kingdom of heaven. The consideration whereof, should move every one to take a narrow view of his miserable state in himself, through Adam : for by original sin wherein we were born and by our actual transgressions wherein, we live, we bar our self from the kingdom of heaven. It is lamentable to see how the whole world lieth in sin, and how the devil bewitcheth men to conceal or diminish their sins; making great sins small, and little sins none at all: when as the least sin which they commit, (without repentance) is sufficient to bar them for ever out of the kingdom of Heaven. Again, seeing every sin doth bar us out of Heaven, this must be a motive, to induce every one of us, to repent of all our sins, to bewail the same, & to pray earnestly for the pardon ⟨p. 183⟩of them in the death of Christ: and continually to labour to turn unto God from all sin, because if we live but in one sin, it will be a mighty bar•e sufficient to exclude us the Kingdom of heaven eternally. Thirdly, seeing Christ keep• the keys of heaven; hereby we are taught to come unto Christ, & to seek by him to enter into the kingdom of heaven. For Christ by his death hath opened heaven: as he said unto Nathaniel and Philip, a