A09950:1033
The Breastplate of Faith and Love
The breast-plate of faith and love. A treatise, wherein the ground and exercise of faith and love, as they are set upon Christ their object, and as they are expressed in good works, is explained. / Delivered in 18 sermons upon three several texts, by the late faithful and worthy minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty, Master of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolns Inn.The breast-plate of faith and love. A treatise, wherein the ground and exercise of faith and love, as they are set upon Christ their object, and as they are expressed in good workes, is explained. / Delivered in 18 sermons upon three severall texts, by the late faithfull and worthy minister of Iesus Christ, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to his Maiesty, Master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne.
London: printed by W. Jones for Nicolas Bourne, 1630London: printed by W. Iones for Nicolas Bourne, 1630
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.
Besides if we consider who it is that requires this love,2 is it not the great God of heaven and earth? is it not the Son? If he had commanded thee the hardest thing in the world, if he had said, thou shalt cast thy self into the fire, thou shalt sacrifice children to me, you are his creatures, and you must obey him: But when he requires this only at thy hands, to love him, is it not equal?
Besides if we consider who it is that requires this love,2 is it not the great God of heaven and earth? is it not the Sonne? If hee had commanded thee the hardest thing in the world, if he had said, thou shalt cast thy selfe into the fire, thou shalt sacrifice children to me, you are his creatures, and you must obey him: But when he requires this onely at thy hands, to love him, is it not equall?
- 2He that requires this, might have required harder things.Hee that requires this, might have required harder things.
Besides,3 when he requires this, it is for your benefit, for when you have given the Lord your hearts, the Lord gives you them again; even as the earth, the water it receives from the sea, it returns it better back again in springs and fountains, and pure streams; so doth the Lord give you your hearts back again, when you have bestowed them upon him, and withal he gives you leave to bestow them upon other things, to love all things that you may and ought to love, and which is good for you to love; therefore the Lord may require it upon this penalty, for he asks but his own, and what he hath deserved ⟨p. 176⟩