A09950:965
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.
So it is with the heart of man, when his heart is so broken, so humbled and touched with the sense of his sins, that he longs after nothing but remission, nothing but the assurance of Gods favour, the assurance of his love and kindness, nothing will satisfy him but that: it is so in natural defects, and so it is in the soul, when the heart of a man is so fashioned, ⟨p. 141⟩that it looks upon God as one agreeable to him, and there is nothing else suitable but only the Lord, and his favour, and his love, that is required, to breed this love in you towards him. What is the reason else, that it is said, Hosea 5. ult. When they are afflicted they will seek me diligently. But because afflictions teach a man to know himself, it teacheth him to know his own weakness, to see his own sin, his own impotency, his own unworthiness; and when he hath done this, then he looks upon God as one who only is fit for him, as one who is only able to help him. Affliction doth but discover what was there before: For man is a weak and impotent creature, made for the Lord, he is nothing without the Lord, it is the conjunction with God that makes him up, only he knows not this, he understands not this. Therefore when God opens a mans eyes either by the immediate work of his Spirit, to teach him to know himself, or by affliction, then he comes to seek after the Lord, when they are afflicted, they will seek me diligently. If thou shouldest have such an offer as was made to those, Acts 2. Peter tells them there, they should have remission of sins, they should receive the gift of the holy Ghost; if this had been offered to them before they knew themselves, before they had been humbled and pricked at the heart, as it is said they were, would they have regarded such an offer as this? No they would not, although they had understood that offer never so well. So I say, though you ⟨p. 142⟩know his name and his excellent attributes never so perfectly, yet till you come to know your selves too, you will never love him, you will never desire him, you will never long after him: for both these must go together, the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of our selves, to teach you to love him. The knowledge of God, without the knowledge of your selves, is a fruitless speculation: