A09965:580
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 Second Sermon.
AND so now we come to the Use,1 and that is, that there is an Act of Christ to make an union betwixt us, that we may be his, and he ours: there is an act of his, that is, there is a certain power or virtue comes from him, even as there doth from the Load-stone to the iron, that draws thee to him; there goes out a virtue and power from him as to the woman that touched the hem of his garment, that healed her bloody issue; such a power goes out from Christ to every man, that is in him. And as you must examine it by your own act, so in the second place you are to examine it by this; consider whether there hath gone out any such power from Christ to take and comprehend thee: For you must know this, that when once we are in Christ, then there goes forth an effectual almighty power from him, which doth not make a little light alteration on the superficies ⟨p. 294⟩of the heart, but it alters the very frame of it, it turns the very rudder of the heart, so that a mans course is to a quite contrary point of the compass; it is such an alteration as doth breed in us, not some good conception only of purposes and desires which many have, which when they come to the birth, there is no strength to bring them forth: but he gives to us a power and strength to perform them: That is, he doth not put upon us a washy colour of profession, but he dyeth us in grain with grace and holiness. And therefore consider whet••• thou hast found any experience of such a power going out from Christ to thy heart; This my beloved, differs from common graces, from the common form of godliness which is in the world, as much as the life differs from the picture, or the substance from the shadow; as a through performance differs from a proffer, or an offer: or as that which hath sinews and vigour, differs from that which is weak and powerless. Therefore this power of Christ which he puts forth and diffuseth into the heart of every man that is in him, is called the Kingdom. And the Kingdom of Christ is not in word,