A09977:491
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.
Now, if thou sayest, I have thus behaved my self, and have not been answered? Do not deceive thy self; for if it be truly performed, you shall be answered: so that look, if it be truly done, expect a blessing, GOD will not suffer his ordinance, at that time, to be a pen without ink, or a pipe without water. I hope ⟨p. 42⟩there be none of us here that neglect prayer to GOD morning, and evening, that live as if there no GOD in the world, as if they were not his subjects: if there be, GOD will wound the hoary scalp of such. But these are not the men I speak to; but they are those that do it from day to day, they pray from time to time, and omit it not; these are the men, whom we are to advertise in this case. Take heed, though you pray every day, yet it may be thou hast not made a prayer all thy life yet, and this is the case of many. For, if thou considerest what an ordinance is indeed, thou shalt know that the Lord doth not reckon all petitioning as a prayer, nor set it down for the ordinance. And it may be the case of the Saints sometimes, (though we speak not now to them) they may pray often, and yet the Lord not register, nor set it down for a prayer, and therefore it may never come into remembrance before him. And this I take to be Davids case in the time of his adultery; the ground of which you shall see, Psal. 51.16, 17.1 Open thou my lips (O LORD) and my mouth shall set forth thy praise: David had, as it were, mistaken himself, he thought that he had prayed, and offered a sacrifice, but, saith he, I was deceived all this while, I was not able to open my mouth to any purpose; therefore, Lord, open thou my mouth; I brought sacrifice in, but thou regardest it not, till my heart was humbled; Therefore, a broken and a contrite heart, O GOD, thou wilt not despise. ⟨p. 43⟩Therefore you deceive your selves, that go on in a customary performance of holy duties, and think that you pray for all this; that think this worship to be in the spirit only, when your outward man carries it self negligently; this is but a lame performance, they must go both together. Therefore look that it be an ordinance, which then it is, when not only the spirit of a man is well set, but the whole man is applied to the duty, that is, when all the strength of a man goes to it.