A09965:279
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.
If this be the condition of all that are in Christ, to live and be quickened,1 see what is expected from you to whom this talent is committed; every excellency is a talent, it must not lie dead, but be improved for our masters use: the sin is great if ye do it not: the neglect being of a greater thing, the sin is greater. God sets a proportionable account On his benefits, and expects a severe account from us, if we use them not. Be exhorted then to live this life: some live much in a short time; some never live this life at all; one man may live more in one day, than another man in an hundred: for to live is nothing, but to be stirring and doing. 1. Tim. 5.6. Those who live in pleasures are dead whilst they live: so he that is occupied about riches or honours, is dead: all that time that men are occupied about riches and their estates, about credit, honours, and the like, making them their end, is a time of death: ye have lived no longer than ye have acted duties of new obedience. If you sum up your lives according to this computation, to how short a reckoning will they come? A wise man speaks more in a few words, than a fool doth in a multitude: one piece of gold hath more worth than a hundred pieces of brass; as we say of an empty oration, that there is a flood of words, but a drop of matter; so if you consider your lives, and see how long ye ⟨p. 100⟩have lived in death, bungling out your time; you will see that ye have lived but little in a long time; therefore now be doing something; redeem the time;2 be busy in doing or receiving good, be still devising to do something for God, and to put it in execution: spend your fat and sweetness for God and man; wear out, not rust out; flame out, not smother out; burn out, be not blown out. So did Christ, so did Moses, so did Paul, making the Gospel to abound from Jerusalem to Illyricum:3 so did David, the text saith, that he served his time; he did not idle it out, that is, he lived not as his own master, but he did do all to God, as to a master: All the worthies of the Church have lived thus: and not only they, but poor Christians likewise are still doing, they serve God and men, they are useful, they are the men that live.