A09977:489
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.
2. Consider this; If thou findest thy self apt to a careless, negligent behaviour, and carriage of the body, when thou comest to GOD, and pretendest this, that he is a spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit; I say, consider, whether this be not an excuse that thy flesh makes to this end, that it may be lazy, and have some ease to it self, from a false acception of that principle, God is a Spirit, that so it may give way to an outward laziness of the body. Therefore look narrowly to it, thou shouldest stir up the outward man, that thou thereby mayest stir up the inward man, when thou comest before God in any worship.
2. Consider this; If thou findest thy selfe apt to a carelesse, negligent behaviour, and carriage of the body, when thou commest to GOD, and pretendest this, that he is a spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit; I say, consider, whether this be not an excuse that thy flesh makes to this end, that it may be lazie, and have some ease to it selfe, from a false acception of that principle, God is a Spirit, that so it may give way to an outward lazinesse of the body. Therefore looke narrowly to it, thou shouldest stirre up the outward man, that thou thereby maist stirre up the inward man, when thou commest before God in any worship.
3. Consider, that to make any thing an ordinance, there must be an application of the whole man to it; otherwise, it is but a lame performance, and God will not reckon as the obedience of an ordinance. For this truth must be remembered; That an ordinance of God performed as it ought to be, doth usually carry a blessing with it. A prayer, a Sacrament received as it ought, a fast kept as it should, moves the Lord to give a blessing, if thou doest not ⟨p. 41⟩Ponere obicem, thou shalt not go away empty; for it is always accompanied with a blessing: as it is said to Ananias, Acts 9.1