A09977:191
Life eternalLife eternall
Life eternal or, A treatise of the knowledge of the divine essence and attributes Delivered in XVIII. sermons. By the late faithful and worthy minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston, D. in Divinity, chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty, master of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolns Inn.Life eternall or, A treatise of the knowledge of the divine essence and attributes Delivered in XVIII. sermons. By the late faithfull and worthy minister of Iesus Christ, Iohn Preston, D. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to his Majestie, master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolns Inne.
London: printed by Richard, 1631
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.
1We must labour to confirm our faith in these principles, because they are of exceeding great moment, and consequence, in the lives of men;2 though they seem to be remote, yet they are of more moment than any other; as of a house, you see a fair top, but yet the foundation is of more moment, and that cannot be seen; the streams are seen, but the Well-head cannot: so all the actions of the lives of men are built upon these principles, and as they are more strongly, or ⟨p. 65⟩weakly believed; so have they more or less influence into the hearts and lives of men. As take a man that believes fully, that there is a GOD; and that, the Scriptures are his Word: this breeds an unresistable resolution to serve, and please him, notwithstanding all oppositions he meets with: Take the greatest things that use to daunt men, as take a man that is to die, if he considers that there is a God, with whom he is to live for ever, what is death then? no more than the stones flying about Stevens ears, when he beheld the heavens opened; so when men speak against him, and slander him; when they scoff, and revile him, and trample upon him; yet, if God be with him, he can boldly say, I care not for mans day, nor for the speaking against of sinners; he is not moved a whit with them; they pass away as a vapour, that moves him not: so when he sees the current of the times to run against him, yet, when he sees that there is an Almighty GOD that takes notice of him, he is able to stand against and despise them all, and is not stirred an hairs breadth out of the way for it, they are as waters beating against a rock. Consider the Martyrs, that died in the fire, if you had stood by, you would have said; Surely, that man hath a strong faith, that can go out of this life, and suffer such a kind of death; but why doth he do it? because he believes that there is a GOD,3 that is a rewarder of them that seek him. So every regenerate man, whatsoever he doth, he doth it with the same faith that they did, only here is the difference; ⟨p. 66⟩the Martyrs spent all at once, and these do it but drop by drop: as when a man forbears all present joys, which this life consists in; it is, as it were, a dying by piece-meals, a dying drop by drop, as Paul said, I dye daily. If one of us were to suffer, as the Martyrs did, what is it that would establish our souls?