A09977:516
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
Sermon 12: THE TWELFTH SERMON.Sermon 12: THE TVVELFTH SERMON.
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.
If God be such a simple, first, pure, 1and absolute being, then hence you may see, what a stable foundation our faith hath to rest upon;2 we are built upon the lowest foundation in all the world, that is, upon the first, most absolute, and simple, and pure, and entire being; which I say is the lowest foundation, that depends upon no other, but all upon it: and this is the happy condition of all Christians, and of them alone. Angels, men, heaven and earth are foundations to some things which are built upon them: but they are all built upon this, and therefore dependent. For if this foundation shake it self, (for so he hath power to do) they all fall to ruin: But God is the first, simple, and lowest foundation, being the first absolute and simple being; therefore he that is built upon him, hath the greatest stability, which is the transcendent happiness of Christians, above all men in the world. And this is a great privilege of theirs, which you shall find upon this ground magnified and set forth in Psal. 46.1, 2.3 God is our hope and strength; therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, &c. As if he should say, Though there were a subversion of ⟨p. 52⟩Kingdoms, and an overthrow of all the Churches, yea a confusion of heaven and earth, (as there shall be at the last day) though the mountains were rent from their foundations, and cast into the middle of the sea, yet Christians should be sure all the while, because God, who is the first, absolute, and simple being, and so the lowest foundation, is their hope and strength; that is, he is a foundation lower than all these, that when all these things shall come to ruin, yet GOD on whom we trust, shall be a sure help, and comfort.
If God be such a simple, first, pure, 1and absolute being, then hence you may see, what a stable foundation our faith hath to rest upon;