A09965:282
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.
1First, it is an eternal life. Joh. 6. Your fathers did eat Manna and died, but he that eateth of this bread, shall die no more, but he shall live for ever: that is, this is the advantage that ye have, by the life that I shall give you: those that did eat Manna, the food of Angels, died, and Joh. 4. Those that drink of this water shall thirst again, that is, those that live another life than this, shall die and thirst; but those that live this life, shall never die. To live this life is when the soul lives in the object; there is a living in the subject, yet this spiritual life is when the soul lives in the object, when as it is set on God. Take men that live other lives, ye shall see that their lives are short; A man living in honour, that being the thing he minds and intends, it is in potestate honorantis, there is no constancy in it, it is brittle. If a man lives in wealth, sets his mind on it: Why riches take their wings and fly away, Pro. 23. and then their life is ended. So if a man lives in pleasure and music, they pass away, and then he is dead; those who live in these things ⟨p. 103⟩suffer many sicknesses and many deaths, as their hearts are more intent upon them.2 But it may be we may not mind these things? Yes, as if we minded them not, as a man that hears a tale, and hath his mind elsewhere,3 or as a man that baits at an Inn, his mind being somewhere else; If ye mind them, ye die in them; he that minds the best things, never dies, because there is no change in them. God is always the same; his favour and love is constant; see therefore that ye prize them. As a time that is infinitely long, exceeds that which is a but a span long in quantity, so doth this life exceed the natural life, in perpetuity, and excels all other lives in excellency.