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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.
Again on the other side thou mayest think thou hast the victory, when thou hast it not. The sore may be skinned over, when it is not healed at the bottom, and then no wonder, if it break out again: Sin may lie but asleep when thou takest it for dead; therefore in our turning from our evil ways we must observe a right method. Let thy humiliation be sound, thy faith and assurance perfect: when these precedent acts are not done as they ought, and yet thou thinkest thy sin mortified, it may deceive thee; as we say an error in the first concoction is never amended in the second, nor of the second in the third: So if thy humiliation hath not been sound, thy turning from thy evil ways cannot be through.
Againe on the other side thou maiest thinke thou hast the victory, when thou hast it not. The soare may be skind over, when it is not healed at the bottome, and then no wonder, if it breake out againe: Sin may lie but asleep when thou takest it for dead; therfore in our turning from our evill ways we must observe a right method. Let thy humiliation be sound, thy faith and assurance perfect: when these precedent acts are not done as they ought, and yet thou thinkest thy sin mortified, it may deceive thee; as wee say an error in the first concoction is never amended in the second, nor of the second in the third: So if thy humiliation hath not beene sound, thy turning from thy evill ways cannot be through.
To answer this objection, consider that thou 1strivest against even a spring of sin; if it were but to empty a cistern or to dry up a pond, when the work is once done, we should hear of it no more: but it is a spring of sin that runs continually; and therefore think not that because it returns again, that thy former striving is in vain. As those that watch over the pump in a Ship, though they pump out all the water to day, cannot say, that it will be empty to morrow, or that yet their pumping is in vain, because it fills again, for if they ceased to do it, it would sink the Ship, so it is with sin, especially with some sins: some are more properly called the Law of the members, as being rooted in the ⟨p. 240⟩