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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 any trouble is upon thee, stick not in the 1rind and ba•ke of it, but look through it and beyond it, to the inward root of it; look to sin as the cause, and thou shalt find it so: it may be the immediate cause and instrument may be some outward thing, some enemy of thy disgrace, some sickness, &c. but who hath permitted them to work? is it not the Lord? and what is the motive of his permission but sin? men may have many several motives to do this or. that, but nothing moves the Lord but sin and grace. When an enemy comes upon thee, say not, this man is the cause of this evil, but the Lord hath suffered him to work, and sin hath occasioned this suffering, 2 Chron. 12. 5, 7. Shishak was but the viol, through 2whose hands God poured out his wrath; so I may say, sickness is but the viol, it is the Lords wrath that is poured out in it. Amend this common error, that men are ready to seek out the natural causes of the evils that befall them: if it be sickness, they look to such a distemper in diet, or cold, &c. as the cause of it: so if they miscarry in any enterprise, what folly and oversight hath been the cause of it? These are but the natural and immediate causes, but Christians should look to and seek out to the supernatural. When there came a famine upon the land of Judah for three years, ⟨p. 282⟩2 Sam. 21. 1. the natural cause was evident, which 3was a great drought (for that famine was healed by rain afterwards) and so in those hot countries famine came by drought alone, but David rests not here, but went to the Lord, and enquired out the reason, the sin that should be the cause of it: And God told him it was for the sin of Saul, and his bloody house in slaying the Gibeonites: as wise statesmen, when they find a mean person in a treason, they rest not there, but seek further what deep heads was in the business, and who was the contriver of the plot. When Jacob saw the Angels descend and ascend, he looks to the top of the ladder, and saw the Lord there sending them to and fro. Look not to the stairs of the ladder, one or two that are next to thee, but to the top of the ladder, and there thou shalt see the Lord sending one Angel to do thee a mischief, another to be a Saviour to thee. If you say, how shall I know for what sin it is?