A09965:333
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.
I answer, ye see the old Adam communicated corruption to all his posterity, because they were borne of him; so those who are borne of the new Adam, that is, those who take him and believe in him, have grace communicated to them by him:1 this new birth makes you as capable of Christ, as the other doth of the first ⟨p. 140⟩Adam: why then shall not the second Adam communicate grace as well as the other doth corruption? The philosophers were all deceived in this point, from whence corruption should come; but we know that it came from Adam;2 and so doth grace come from Christ. To get this life, let us seek it in him, let us believe more, let us be humbled more, repent more, and take Christ more: take him on any condition, prize him, set him at the highest rate, hold him fast. As in the actions of marriage, those who are to marry will not part upon any condition; they take one another for richer, for poorer, for better for worse: after this manner must we take Christ, the more ye take Christ thus, the more ye have the Son, and so ye live more the life of grace. All grant that this life comes by the Spirit; and there is no way to get the Spirit but by the Sonne. Ye must first eat ere ye can be nourished; ye must fix your eyes on his passion, as the wife doth fix her eyes or her husband: ye must seek this life from the Spirit ultimately, but ye must first have the Son, and then ye have life: He must have the Son that will have this life; he must be engrafted into Christ as the branches are into the root: