A09977:768
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.
Object. But you will say, that this is but a speculation.
Answ. But that it is more I will put you to one place, which I desire you to consider seriously: that is, Mar. 10.28.29.30. Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said; verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or Brethren, or Sisters, or Father, or Mother, or Wife, or Children, or lands for my sake and the Gospels; but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, Houses, and Brethren, and Sisters, and Mothers, and Children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the world to come eternal life. When it is said here, he shall receive the very same; why doth the Holy Ghost repeat them in particular; He shall receive houses and Brethren &c. with persecution? that is, you shall be stripped of all these things by persecution, yet at the same time, you shall have them all. At that time when he is in a close prison, & driven from ⟨p. 189⟩all these, he shall receive them for this present. The meaning is this: let a man have communion with GOD, let the Lord reveal himself to a man; if he be once pleased to come to a man, and sup with him, if he will but communicate to a man the consolations of the spirit, and fill him with joy and peace through believing: I say, though he be in a close prison, yet he shall have the comfort of houses, Brethren, Sisters; Mothers &c. That is, that comfort which they would yield him, he shall find them altogether in GOD. So that if one should come and say to him, what if you should have Father, Mother, and friends restored to you, that you may enjoy them; I say, a man that hath a near communion with GOD, to whom GOD says, that he will come and sup with him, at such a time; he will say, I do not care one jot for them, for I have that which is better than them all. For example: you see this in the Apostles, that rejoiced in prison. What do you think they would have said to men that offered them riches? Would they not have slighted them? They did slight imprisonment: and in that they did slight shame, and prison &c. they would have slighted the other by the rule of contraries. Therefore labour to be content with GOD alone.