A09990:304
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.
Therefore, to direct you in it, you must know this, that there is a length in this way, there is a rectitude, and a straightness in this way; and thirdly, there is a certain breadth in this way. There is a length in this way, and therefore you must go hastily in it, you must run the way of Gods Commandments, as David saith: for there is a length in it; that is; it will not be dispatched with an easy pace. God requires every man to make hast in it, he must quicken his pace in the way to heaven. My Beloved, the cause why men go on slowly in this way, is from halting; because they halt in this way: In other paces, sometimes we grow slow by ⟨p. 198⟩weariness, but in the ways of Gods Commandments, still our slackness comes from halting, and therefore you have that used often in the Scriptures; men are said to halt between two opinions, that is one kind of halting, between two Religions, he goes slowly forward in either of them, that halts between two, he profits little, he goes slowly on. As there is a halting between two opinions, so there is a halting between two objects, God and the world. A man desires to serve God, and yet he desires to have vain glory, or desires to make up an estate, &c. I say, these divers affections, these divers respects to divers objects, when a man hangs too much upon the world, when he hath an eye too much upon vain-glory, when he is took up too much with pleasures, and divers lusts, this causeth men to halt in the ways of Gods Commandments: halting, you know, is either when one leg is sound, and another lame, or when we go with one leg in a higher way, and another in a lower way, it comes all to one; that is, when the heart doth not wholly look upon God, but looks much to the world, therefore you see men much drenched in worldly businesses, that are over-come with them, that are drowned in them, they go slowly on in the ways of Gods Commandments, that go with one leg in Gods ways, and another out of them: And so likewise when one affection, and one desire shall be good, and another shall be lame, this causeth a halting in the ways of God. And therefore, if you would run, you must have both feet whole, and sound, ⟨p. 199⟩without lameness, and both feet must he in the way▪ When a man is thus disposed, he runs the ways of Gods Commandments; that is;