A09965:437
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.
First, are ye willing to be informed? Will ye try and sift thing to the bran? Try ye if the thing be lawful which ye desire? If ye stop your eyes and ears, and will not examine it, you do not deny your selves; it is all one to stop the light, as to have it and not to follow it: Is there not a secret light within you, that tells you, this and this is a sin? doth your conscience whisper within you? if it doth, ye deny not your selves, except ye desire to be informed. Num. 22.20. Balaam would not go upon any terms to curse Israel, at the first and second request; he had a secret light within him that told him that he should not go, though God bade him go; but yet God who knows the ways of the flesh and Spirit, saw that he lingered after Balacks wages; and therefore he bids him go, ⟨p. 205⟩and he went: he did not satisfy his conscience. So SAUL carried it fairly, when as he offered Sacrifice before SAMUEL came; so he did when h• ••ared AGAG and the best things; pretending Sacrifice to be made with them: yet his conscience told him that it was a sin, he did not satisfy it· Examine things to the full, else ye deny not your selves. We preach to you, that you must do thus and thus; peradventure ye deceive your selves and reason against it, yet your Consciences are convinced. 2 Corinth. 4.2. We speak to your Consciences, and approve our selves to them; we preach not to the wits and humours of men, but to their consciences, in the sight of GOD and men. You must love the light: Joh. 3.12. He that doth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought of GOD. Do ye choose the light, without seeking any distinctions, or evasions? If a man seek evasions, it is a sign he is not of the truth. He that loves the truth, is of the light: approves things that are excellent;1 he is willing to hold up his actions to the Sun, as one doth a vessel, to see if there be ever a flaw in it. Ye may call sanctifying the Sabbath, Judaism; ye may call strictness of life, Hypocrisy and Preciseness; Zeal, indiscretion; But what say your consciences of them? If that which we do be but hypocrisy, why do you not it in reality?