A09990:238
The new covenantThe nevv covenant
The new covenant, or the saints portion A treatise unfolding the all-sufficiency of God, and mans uprightness, and the covenant of grace. delivered in fourteen sermons upon Gen. 17. 1. 2. Whereunto are adjoined four sermons upon Eccles. 9.1. 2. 11. 12. By the late faithful and worthy minister of Jesus Christ John Preston. Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty, master of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolns Inn.The nevv covenant, or the saints portion A treatise vnfolding the all-sufficiencie of God, and mans uprightnes, and the covenant of grace. delivered in fourteene sermons vpon Gen. 17. 1. 2. Wherevnto are adioyned foure sermons vpon Eccles. 9.1. 2. 11. 12. By the late faithfull and worthie minister of Iesus Christ Iohn Preston. Dr. in Divinitie, chaplaine in ordinary to his Maiestie, maister of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolnes Inne.
London: printed by I. Dawson for Nicolas Bourne, 1629
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.
I say this,1 if God be All-sufficient, it should lead us unto a further knowledge of the Creature, and so likewise it should lead us to a further knowledge of Almighty God. That is; To see a contrary fullness in him, I must run briefly through this, Labour to see him in his greatness, labour to see him in all his Attributes, to see him in his unchangeableness, to see him in his eternity, in his power, in his providence. You shall see in Psal. 102. 21. 2what use the Psalmist there makes of the Attributes of God; I said O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days, thy years endure from generation to generation, thou hast before times laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands, they shall perish, but thou shalt endure, even they all shall wax old as a Garment. The meaning is this, when a man hath proceeded to this, that he sees the vanity of the ⟨p. 158⟩Creatures, he looks upon them all, as that they will all wear and wax old as a Garment. A garment that is new at the first, with long wearing, you know, will be spent, and will break into holes, and at length be fit for nothing, but to be cast away. So, saith he, shall the whole body of the Creatures be. Now, when we consider this, that it is a mans own case, and every Creatures, let a man help himself with this, that God is eternal, and remains for ever, and therefore, if a man can get to be engrafted into him, to dwell with him, that will help him out of that weakness, and mutability, and changeableness that is in the Creature; and therefore in Psal. 90. saith he,3 Lord thou art our habitation from generation to generation. As if he should say; When a man dwells with God, he is a safe house, a Castle, that when generations come, and go, & times over our heads, there is a change of all things, yet he is a Rock, he is a Castle, he is a Habitation, there is no change in him; So that, when you find these defects in the Creature, go home to him, and labour to see his immutability, and eternity. And so, likewise, when thou seest thy inability to do any thing, when thou seest that weakness in the Creature, that it is not able to bring any enterprise to pass,