A09965:203
Four godly and learned treatises Entitled, I. A remedy against covetousness. II. An elegant…Foure godly and learned treatises Intituled, I. A remedy against covetousnesse. II. An elegant…
Four godly and learned treatises Entitled, I. A remedy against covetousness. II. An elegant and lively description of spiritual death and life. III. The doctrine of self-denial. IV. Upon the sacrament of the Lords Supper. Delivered in sundry sermons, by that late famous preacher, and worthy instrument of Gods glory, John Preston, Doctor of Divinity, chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty; master of Emanuel College, and sometime preacher of Lincolns Inn.Foure godly and learned treatises Intituled, I. A remedy against covetousnesse. II. An elegant and lively description of spirituall death and life. III. The doctrine of selfe-deniall. IV. Vpon the sacrament of the Lords Supper. Delivered in sundry sermons, by that late famous preacher, and worthy instrument of Gods glory, Iohn Preston, Doctor of Divinitie, chaplaine in ordinarie to his Majestie; master of Emanuel Colledge, and sometime preacher of Lincolnes Inne.
London: printed by Thomas for Michael Sparke, 1633
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.
1But it will be objected: that in as much as we are commanded to do things impossible, mans nature is destroyed, for man is a free creature. Secondly, the command implies an absurdity, an impossibility, to bid a man do that which he cannot do; to bid a man that is in a deep Well, bound hand and foot, to come out himself is foolish; ye may blame him for falling in, it is absurd to bid him come out.
1But it will be objected: that in as much as we are commanded to doe things impossible, mans nature is destroyed, for man is a free creature. Secondly, the command implies an absurdity, an impossibility, to bid a man doe that which hee cannot doe; to bid a man that is in a deepe Well, bound hand and foote, to come out himselfe is foolish; yee may blame him for falling in, it is absurd to bid him come out.
- 1Object.Obiect.
1To this I answer, that there is a difference between the external binding, and the bonds wherewith a man is fettered by sin; There is an external impediment, which a man cannot remove, as when he is fettered in the well; but there is no external impediment, when as men are bound in the chains of sin. When we command you to do thus and thus, all the business is with the will, we rather say men will not, than they cannot come. There is liberty when as a man hath eligibile or non eligibile; when he hath a thing in his own choice, when there is no impediment, when he may argue both ways: If a man out of the perverseness of his nature doth it not, it is not compulsory, but free; a beasts action is not free because he cannot reason on both sides, but ⟨p. 68⟩