A09990:339
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.
And so likewise soundness, 1when a man is sound at heart, that is another expression of this perfectness. Now a thing is said to be sound (as an Apple, you know, is said to be sound, when it is not rotten at the core, though there be many specks in it; and a Ship is said to be sound, when there is no leak in it, though it may have some other flaws, and defects; And a Vessel is said to be sound, when there is no cleft in the bottom, though it may otherwise be bruised, and battered, yet, you say, it is a sound vessel) I say, so it is in this case, when the bottom of the heart, and the inward frame of the heart is right and sound. Though a man be subject to many failings, yet this is a perfect man, he hath a sound heart; whereas, on the other side, take a man, my Beloved, (that we may show you what this rottenness at heart is) take a man, I say, who doth admit a constant neglect of any duty, or an ordinary commission of any sin, such a man may properly be said to have a leak in the bottom of his heart, to be rotten hearted, to be unsound at the bottom; But a man, that, though he be subject to infirmities, yet had rather dye then omit a known duty, or to be in a known sin, I say, this man, though he have many infirmities, yet he hath a sound heart: And the reason of it is this, because, such a man although he have some weakness, some sickness, and infirmity hanging upon him, yet he ⟨p. 224⟩will grow it out, as one that is sound in his bowels will wear out his sickness, and distemper, as it is said, if the inside be clean, the outside will follow: And that is as true, on the other side, let the inside be rotten, though there be a fair and a golden outside, as in an Apple oft times, that doth not continue long, but rottenness will possess the outside also; That we see often in experience, and you shall seldom see it otherwise; (I think there is scarce an example of it) but that an hypocrite, a man of an unsound heart, though he may carry a fair show long, yet, in the end, even the outside shall be took away, that shall vanish also, and rottenness shall seize upon it: for that is the nature of things, that are unsound, they stay not there, but they putrefy, and corrupt more and more; So that, you see throughout the Scriptures, still those that were of imperfect hearts; that is, that had unsound hearts, they were discovered before their death;