A09977:444
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.
Answ. You must know that the tenth commandment doth strike against these abominations: Thou shalt not lust, and so it is translated: Rom. 7: so that these lustings of the spirit,1 are those that defile the soul. You see that God hath spent a whole commandment against them. And indeed, all the actual sins committed by us simply considered in themselves, as committed by the body, are not so hated of God, as the pollution of the spirit is.2 Nay, I dare be bol•• to say, that the act of adultery, and murder, is not so abominable in Gods eyes, as the filthiness of the spirit; this is more abominable in the sight of God, who is a spirit, than the act of the body; for it is the spirit that he mainly looks to. ⟨p. 8⟩Indeed the act contracts the guilt; because the lust is then grown up to an height, so that it is come to an absolute will and execution. Therefore, if these lustings do press into the soul, we should put them out again, and reject them with shame and grief: for GOD is a Spirit, and beholds the continual behaviour of thy spirit.
Answ. You must know that the tenth commandement doth strike against these abominations: Thou shalt not lust, and so it is translated: Rom. 7: so that these lustings of the spirit,1 are those that defile the soule. You see that God hath spent a whole commandement against them. And indeede, all the actuall sinnes committed by us simply considered in themselves, as committed by the body, are not so hated of God, as the pollution of the spirit is.2 Nay, I dare be bol•• to say, that the act of adultery, and murther, is not so abominable in Gods eyes, as the filthinesse of the spirit; this is more abominable in the sight of God, who is a spirit, than the act of the body; for it is the spirit that he mainly lookes to.