A09965:371
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.
The fifth impediment is ignorance; men know not the ways of God, therefore they do not embrace them. Joh 4.10. If thou hadst known the gift of God▪ and who it is that speaketh to thee, thou wouldest have asked of him. There is enough in religion to make men love it, if they knew it: there is virtue in it, there is beauty and profit in it. Esa. 57. There is a peace in it; 1all the ways of it are ways of pleasantness there is honour in it; old age is honourable with righteousness. But mens hearts are full of darkness; they see not, neither do they understand it. 2 Pet. 2.12▪ They speak evil of the things they know not; Its true, they know the things, [Greek or Hebrew], they know them not experimentally and really, and that deceives them. 1 Cor. 8.2. If any man think he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. One may know all things, and yet know nothing, as he should: Ignorance deceives many, it makes them to measure religion by a false rule, and common opinion. Act. 24.14. it is called heresy; when ye judge of it by external shows, all baseness is outwardly in religion, it is as like a costly thing covered with straw: Christ was hid under a Carpenters Son; 2preaching under the name of foolishness: so our ignorance in attributing things to false causes keeps us off. If the Gospel be hid, 3it is hidden ⟨p. 166⟩to those that perish; there is a double ignorance; privative, and positive; that is it, by which the God of this world blinds men, breeding a false persuasion of good, and a good persuasion of evil.