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The golden sceptre held forth to the humble With the Churches dignityThe golden scepter held forth to the humble VVith the Churches dignitie
The golden sceptre held forth to the humble With the Churches dignity by her marriage. And the Churches duty in her carriage. In three treatises. The former delivered in sundry sermons in Cambridge, for the weekly fasts, 1625. The two latter in Lincolns Inn. By the late learned and reverend divine, John Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty, Mr. of Emanuel College in Cambridge, and sometime preacher at Lincolns Inn.The golden scepter held forth to the humble VVith the Churches dignitie by her marriage. And the Churches dutie in her carriage. In three treatises. The former delivered in sundry sermons in Cambridge, for the weekely fasts, 1625. The two latter in Lincolnes Inne. By the late learned and reverend divine, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to His Maiesty, Mr. of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and somtime preacher at Lincolnes Inne.
London: printed by R. Badger for N. Bourne, 1638
THE GOLDEN SCEPTRE. › DoctrineTHE GOLDEN SCEPTER. › Doctrine
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.
When once a man is persuaded, that even to destroy himself is the best way to provide for himself, 1and that to let himself go, and his credit and life, and give up all to God, is that whereby he shall put himself into a better condition; when a man is persuaded of this, then you see both do stand together. And we never do exhort a man to seek God in opposition to himself, but when it is best for him so to do, not to give himself up to any thing that shall be an immediate hurt to him; but when 2otherwise it would be worse for him, and when letting himself go is the next way to happiness; and then a man may be exhorted to it, when he shall be persuaded that his good is contained in God more than in himself; as we say the being of an accident is more in the subject than it self; so as take away the subject, and the very separation is a destruction to it: So it is with the creature which hath no bottom of it self, so as the separation of it from God is the destruction of it, as on the contrary ⟨p. 145⟩the keeping of it close unto God, though in a case that seems to be the ruin of it, is its happiness and perfection. As for example, when Abraham should have destroyed his son by offering him up, he thought he should not lose by it, nor Isaac neither: he thought with himself, God hath commanded me to do it, and I never yet lost by keeping any commandment he gave me; God is able to raise him up again. I never yet was a loser by him, and on the contrary I shall be sure to be a loser, and my son also if I do it not. It is indeed impossible, that if a man should simply be a loser, that he should do thus; but when he considers that though he be destroyed at present, yet he believes it will be for his good; and so it will be indeed: As take a beam of the Sun, the way to 3preserve it, is not to keep it by it self, the being of it depends upon the Sun; take the Sun away, and it perisheth for ever: but yet though it should come to be obscured, and so cut off for a while, yet because the Sun remains still, therefore when the Sun shines forth again, it will be renewed again. Such a thing is the creature being compared with God. If you would preserve the creature in it self, it is impossible for it to stand: like a glass without a bottom, it must fall and break.